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THE GENERAL 



BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY 



A NEW EDITION. 



VOL. VII. 



»» * 



Printed by Nichols, Son, and* Bentley, 
Red lion Passage, Fleet Street, London. 



^ 



THE GENERAL 

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY: 

CONTAINING 
AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT 

OF THE 

LIVES AND WRITINGS 

OF IHB 

MOST EMINENT PERSONS 

IN EVERY NATION; 

PARTICULARLY THE BRITISH AND IRISH; 
FROM THE EARLIEST ACCOUNTS TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

A NEW EDITION, 

REVISED AND ENLARGED BY 

ALEXANDER CHALMERS, F. S. A. 



VOL. VII. 



LONDON: 



FR1NTBD FOB J. NICHOLS AND SON* F. C. AND J. RIYINGTON J T. PAYNE* 
W. OTRIDGB AND SON J O. AND W. NICOL ; WILKIE AND ROBINSON | 
J. WALKER J R. LEA j W. LOWNDES ; WHITE, COCHRANE, AND CO. f 
J. BRIGHTON; T. EGBRTON; LAC KINGTON, ALLEN, AND CO.) J. CARPENTER* 
LONGMAN, HUR8T, REES, ORME, AND BROWN ; CADELL AND DAVIBS j C. LAW | 
J. BOOKER ; J. CUTHELL; CLARKE AND SONS; J. AND A. ARCH ; J. HARRIS » 
BLACK, PARRY, AND CO. ; J. BOOTH ; J. MAWMAN ; GALE, CURTIS, ANDt 
FBNNER; R. H. EVANS; J. HATCHARD; J. HARDING ; R. BALDWBf ) J, MURRAY; 
J. JOHNSON AND CO. J E. BENTLKY J AND J. FAULDRR, 

1813. 



A NEW AND GENERAL 
BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 



BlUGIT, or BRIDGET, and by contraction BRIDE, 
(St.) a saint of the Romish church, and the patroness of 
Ireland, flourished in the beginning of the sixth century, 
and is named in the martyrology of Bede, and in all others 
since that age. She was born at Fochard in Ulster, soon 
after Ireland was converted, and took the veil in her youth 
from the bauds of ! disciple of St. 

Patrick. She built hi irge oak, thence 

called Kill-dare, or I id being joined 

soon after by severs !y formed them- 

selves into a religious ranched out into 

several other nunneri 1, all which ac- 

knowledge her for th Iress. Her bio- 

graphers give no particulars of her life, but what are too 
much of the miraculous kind for modern readers. Several 
churches in England and Scotland are dedicated to her, 
and some hi Germany and France, by which we may guess 
at her past reputation. According to Giraldus Cambrensis, 
her body was found, with those of St. Patrick and St. Co- 
lumba, in a triple vault at Down-Patrick in 1 1 85, and were 
all three translated to the cathedral of the same city, but 
their monument was destroyed in the reign of Henry VIII. 
She is commemorated in the Roman martyrology on the 
first of February. This Brigit was a virgin ; but in the 
Roman calendar we find another Bridgit, a widow, the foun- 
dress of the monasteries of the Brigittines, who died July 
t3, I373. 1 

1 Butler's Lives of the Saints. 

Vol. VII. B 



2 BRILL. 

• 

BRILL (Matthew), an artist of whom very few parti- 
culars are mentioned ; the most material are, that he was* 
born at Antwerp, in 1550, and learned the rudiments of 
his art in that city ; that he went to study at Rome, and in 
a very few years manifested so much merit . iiv landscape 
and history, that Pope Gregory XIII. employed him to 
work in the Vatican, and allowed him an honourable pen- 
sion as long as he lived. He died in 1 584, aged thirty- 
five. * 

BRILL (Paul), an excellent artist, brother to Matthew 
Brill, was born at Antwerp, in 1554, but bred to the pro- 
fession of painting under Daniel Voltelmans. From the 
time of his quitting that master till he went to Italy, bis 
manner was rather stiff, his pictures had a predominant 
brown and yellow tinge, and his design and colouring were 
equally indifferent. But when he visited his brother Mat- 
thew at Rome, and saw the works of Titian and Caracci y 
he altered his Flemish manner entirely, and fixed upon a 
style that was abundantly pleasing, with a charming tone 
of colour. The pension and employment which his brother 
possessed at the Vatican were conferred upon Paul ; and ; 
be so far surpassed him, that he daily rose in his reputa- 
tion, till he was considered as the first in his profession. 1 
Annibal Caracci generally painted the figures in his land- 
scapes, and by that means increased their value to a very 
high degree. His manner of painting is true, sweet, and* 
tender; the touchings of his trees are firm, and yet deli- 
cate ; his scenery, his situations, and distances, are ad- 
mirable, most of them being taken from nature ; and the. 
masses of his light and shadow are strong, and very judi- 
cious ; though, in stfme of his small easel-pictures, he may 
be sometimes accounted rather too green, or at least more- 
greenish than could be wished. It is remarked of him, 
Jthat, in the latter part of his life, his landscapes were 
always of a small size ; but they are beautiful and exqui- 
sitely finished, and frequently he painted them on copper. 
The genuine works of this eminent master are now rarely 
to be met with, especially those of the larger size, and 
they afford prices that are extremely high in every part of 
Europe. Sandrart observes, that in his time the pictures 
of Paul Brill were eagerly coveted in all countries where 
the polite arts are encouraged ; that abundance of p«r- 

1 Pilkington.— -Detcamps. 



BRILL. 3 

chasers appeared at tbe public sales, ambitious to possess* 
them ; and that very large sums of money were given fot 
them whenever they could be procured. And it seems 
that their intrinsic value is not diminished, since, a very 
few years ago, one of the landscapes of this master sold in 
Holland for 160/. and another, at an auction in London, 
for 1 20 guineas or upwards, and yet they were deemed to 
be cheaply purchased. He died in 1626, aged seventy- 
two. * 

BRINDLEY (James), a man of a most uncommon ge- 
nius for mechanical inventions, and who particularly ex- 
celled in planning and conducting inland navigations, was 
born at Tunsted, in the parish of Wormhill, and county of 
Derby, in 1716. His parents were possessed of a little 
freehold, the small income of which his father dissipated 
by a fondness for shooting and other field-diversions, and 
by keeping company with people above his rank. The 
consequence of this was, that his son was so totally neg- 
lected, that he did not receive the ordinary rudiments of 
education. The necessities of the family were so pressing, 
that young Brindley was obliged, as early as possible, to 
contribute towards its support ; and, till he was nearly 
seventeen years of age, he was employed in those kinds of 
light labour which are usually assigned, in country places, 
to the children of the poor. At this period of his life, he 
bound himself apprentice to one Sennet, a mill-wright, 
near Macclesfield, in Cheshire, and soon became expert 
in the business; besides which, he quickly discovered a 
strong attachment to the mechanic arts in general, and a 
ggnius for extending them much farther than they had 
hitherto been carried. In the early part of bis apprentice- 
ship, he was frequently left by himself, for whole weeks 
together, to execute works concerning which his master 
had given him n* previous instructions. These works, 
therefore, he finished in his own way ; and Mr. Bennet was 
often astonished at the improvements his apprentice, from 
time to time, introduced into the mill-wright business, and 
earnestly questioned him from whence he had gained his 
knowledge. He had not been long at the trade, before 
the millers, wherever he had been employed, always chose 
bim again, in preference to the master, or any other work- 
man ; and, before the expiration of his servitude, at which 

? PiiJungton.-^Strutt— Ai^eaviUe.— Descamps. 

B 2 



* BRINDLEY. 

time Mr. Sennet, who was advanced in years, grew unable 
to work) Mr. Brindley, by his ingenuity and application, 
kept up the business with credit, and supported the old 
man and his family in a comfortable manner. 

It may not be amiss to mention a singular instance of 
our young mechanic's active and earnest attention to the 
improvement of mill-work. His master having been em* 
ployed to build an engine paper-mill, which was the first 
of the kind that had been attempted in those parts, went 
to see one of them at work, as a model to copy after. But, 
notwithstanding this., when he had begun to build the mill, 
ai?d prepare the wheels, the people of the neighbourhood 
"were informed by a millwright, who happened to travel 
thai road, that Mr. Bennet was throwing his employers* 
money away, and would never be able to complete, to 
any effectual purpose, the work he had undertaken. Mr. 
Brindley, hearing of the report, and being sensible that 
he could not depend upon his master for proper instruc- 
tions, determined to see, with his own eyes, the mill in* 
tended to be copied. Accordingly, without mentioning 
his design to a single person, he set out, on a Saturday 
evening, after he had finished the business of the day » 
travelled fifty miles on foot ; took a view of the mill; re- 
turned back, in time for his work, on Monday morning ; 
informed Mr. Bennet wherein he had been deficient; and 
completed the engine, to the entire satisfaction of the 
proprietors. Besides this, he made a considerable im- 
provement in the press-paper. 

Mr. Brindley afterwarda engaged in the mill-wright 
business onr his own account, and, by many useful inven- 
tions and contrivances, advanced it to a higher degree of 
perfection than it had formerly attained ; so that he ren- 
dered himself greatly valued in his neighbourhood, as a 
most ingenious mechanic. By degrees, his fame began to 
spread itself wider in the country, and his genius was no 
longer confined to the particular branch in which he had 
hitherto been employed. In 1752, be erected a very ex- 
traordinary water-engine at Clifton, in Lancashire, for. the 
purpose of draining some coal-mines, which before were 
worked at an enormous expence. The water for the use 
of this engine was brought out of the river Irwell, by a 
subterraneous tunnel, nearly six hundred yards in length* 
carried through a rock ; and the wheel was fixed thirty 
feet below the surface of the ground. Mr. Brindley'* 



BRINDLEY. 5 

TOperiority to the mechanics in that part of the kingdom 
where he resided, being now well ascertained, and bis 
reputation having reached the metropolis, he was em* 
ployed by N. Pattison, esq. of London, and some other 
gentlemen, in 1755, to execute the larger wheels for a 
new silk-mill, at Congleton, in* Cheshire. The execution 
of the smaller wheels, and of the tnor^ complex part of 
the machinery, was committed to another person, and that 
person had the superintendancy of the whole. He was 
not, however, equal to the undertaking; for he was obliged, 
after various efforts, to confess his inability to complete 
it The proprietors, upon this, being greatly alarmed, 
thought fit to call in the assistance of Mr. Brindley ; but 
still left the general management of the construction of 
the silk-mill to the former engineer, who refused to let 
him see the whole model, and, by giving him his work to 
perform in detached pieces, without acquainting him with 
the result which was wanted, affected to treat him as a 
common mechanic. Mr. Brindley, who, in the conscious- 
ness of genius, felt his own superiority to the man who 
thus assumed an ascendancy over him, would not submit to 
such unworthy treatment. He told the proprietors, that 
if they would let him know what was the effect they wished 
to have produced, and would permit him to perform the 
business in his own way, be would finish the mill to their 
satisfaction. This assurance, joined with the knowledge 
they had of his ability and integrity, induced them to 
trust the completion of the mill solely to his care ; and he 
accomplished that very curjqus and complex piece of ma- 
chinery in a manner far superior to the expectations of his 
employers. They had not solely the pleasure of seeing it 
established, with a most masterly skill, according to the 
plan originally proposed, but of having it constructed with 
the addition of many new and useful improvements. There 
was one contrivance in particular, for winding the silk 
upon the bobbins equally, and not in wreaths ; and another 
for stopping, in an instant, not only the whole of this ex- 
tensive system throughout its various and numerous apart- 
ments, but any part of it individually. He invented, like- 
wise, machines for making all the tooth and pinion wheels 
of the different engines. These wheels had hitherto been 
cut by hand, with great labour, but by means of Mr. 
Brindley's machines, as much work could be performed in 
one day as. had heretofore required fourteen. The pot- 



6 BR1NDLEY. 

teries of Staffordshire were also, about this time, indebted 
to him for several ^valuable additions in the mills used by 
them for grinding flint stones, by which that process was 
greatly facilitated. 

In the year 1756, Mr. Brindley undertook to erect a 
steam-engine, near Newcastle-under- Line, upon a new 
plan. The boiler of it was made with brick and stone, in- 
stead of iron plates ; and the water was heated by fire-flues 
of a peculiar construction ; by which contrivances the con- 
sumption of fuel, necessary for forking a steam-engine, 
was reduced one half. He introduced, likewise, in this 
engine, cylinders of wood, made in the manner of coopers 
ware, instead of iron ones; the former being not only 
cheaper, but more easily managed in the shafts ; and he 
substituted wood too for iron in the chains which worked 
at the end of the beam. His inventive genius displayed 
itself in various other useful contrivances, which would pro- 
bably have brought the steam-engine to a great degree of 
perfection, if a number of obstacles had not been thrown 
in his way by some interested engineers, who strenuously 
opposed any improvements which they could not call their 
own. , 

The disappointment of Mr. Brindley's good designs in 
this respect must have made the less impression upon him, 
as his attention was soon after called off to another object, 
which, in its consequences, hath proved to be of the 
highest national importance ; namely, the projecting and 
executing of Inland Navigations, from whence the great- 
est benefits arise to trade and, commerce. By these na- 
vigations the expence of carriage is lessened ; a communi- 
cation is opened from one part of the kingdom to another, 
and from each of those parts to the sea; and hence the 
products and manufactures of the country are afforded at a 
moderate price. In this period of our great mechanic's 
life, we shall see the powers given him by the God of Na- 
ture, displayed in the production of events, which, in any 
age less pregnant with admirable works of ingenuity than 
the present, would have constituted a national sera. Wo 
shall see him triumphing over all the suggestions of envy 
or prejudice, though aided by the weight of established 
customs; and giving full scope to the operations of a 
strong and comprehensive mind, which was equal to the 
most arduous undertakings. This he .did under the pro- 
tection of a noble duke, who had the discernment to single 



BRINDLEY. ' 7 

hltm out, and the steadiness and generosity to ""support 
him, against the opinions of those who treated Mr. Brind- 
ley's plans as chimeras,, and laughed at his patron as an 
idle projector.. 

His grace the late duke of Bridgewater had, at Worslejv 
about seven miles from Manchester, a large estate, rich 
With mines of coal, which had hitherto lain useless in the 
bowels of the earth, because the expence of carriage by 
land was too great to find a market for consumption. The 
duke, wishing to* work these mines, perceived the neces- 
sity of a canal from Worsley to Manchester; upon, which 
occasion, Mr. Brindley, who was now become famous in 
the country, was consisted. Having surveyed the ground,, 
he declared the scheme to be practicable. In consequence 
of this, an act was obtained, in 1758 and 1759, for en- 
abling his grace to cut a canal from Worsley to Salford, 
hear Manchester, and to carry the same to or near Hollin 
Ferry, in the county of Lancaster. It being, however, 
afterwards discovered, that the navigation would be more 
beneficial, both to the duke of Bridgewater and the public, 
if carried, over the river Irwell, near Barton bridge, tp 
Manchester, his grace applied again to parliament, and 
procured an act, which enabled him to vary the course of 
bis canal agreeably to this new plan, and likewise to ex- 
tend a side branch to Longford bridge in Stretford. Mr, 
Brindley, , in the mean time, had begun these great under- 
takings, being the first of the kind ever attempted, igi 
England, with navigable subterraneous tunnels and ele* 
vated aqueducts. The principle laid down at the com- 
mencement of this business reflects much honour on the 
noble undertaker, as well as upon bis engineer. It was 
resolved that the canal should be perfect in its kind, and 
that, in order to preserve the level of the water, it should 
jbe free from the usual obstructions of locks. But, in ac- 
complishing this end, many difficulties occurred, . which 
were deemed unsurmountable. It was necessary that the 
canal should be carried over rivers, and many large and 
deep vallies, where it was evident that such stupendous 
mounds of earth must be raised, as could scarcely, it was 
thought, be completed by the labour of ages : and, above 
all, it was not known from what source so large a supply 
of water could be drawn, as, even upon this improved 
plan, would be requisite for the navigation. But Mr, 
JBrincUey, with a strength of mind peculiar to himself, and 



8 BRINDLEY. 

being possessed of the confidence of his great patron, who 
spared no expence to accomplish his favourite design, con* 
quered all the embarrassments thrown in his way, not only 
from the nature of the undertaking itself, but by the pas* 
sions and prejudices of interested individuals : and the ad- 
mirable machines he contrived, and the methods he tookj 
to facilitate the progress, of the work, brought on such a 
rapid execution of it, that the world began to wonder how 
it could have been esteemed so difficult. Thus ready are 
men to find out pretences for lessening the merit of others, 
and for hiding, if possible, from themselves, the unplea- 
sant idea of their own inferiority. 

When the canal was completed as far as Barton, where 
the Irwell is navigable for large vessels, Mr. Brindley 
proposed to carry it over that river, by an aqueduct of 
thirty-nine feet above the surface of the water. This, 
however, being generally considered as a wild and extra- 
vagant project, he desired, in order to justify his conduct 
towards his noble employer, that the opinion of another 
engineer might be taken ; believing that he could easily 
convince an intelligent person of the practicability of his 
design. A gentleman of eminence was accordingly called 
in ; who, being conducted to the place where it was in- 
tended that the aqueduct should be made, ridiculed the at* 
tempt; and when the height and dimensions were com- 
municated to him, he exclaimed, " I have often heard of 
castles in the, air, but never before was shewn where any 
of them were to be erected." This unfavourable verdict 
did not deter the duke of Bridgewater from following the 
opinion of his own engineer. The aqueduct was immedi- 
ately begun ; and it was carried on with such rapidity and 
success, as astonished all those who but a little before con- 
demned it as a chimerical scheme. This work commenced 
in September, 1760, and the first boat sailed over it on the 
17th of July, 1761. From that time, it was not uncom- 
mon to see a boat loaded with forty tons drawn over the. 
aqueduct, with great ease, by one or two mules ; white 
below, against the stream of the Irwell, persons had the 
pain of beholding ten or twelve men tugging at an equal 
draught : a striking instance of the superiority of a. canal- 
navigation over that of a river not in the tideway. The 
works were then extended to Manchester, at which place 
the curious machine for landing coals upon the top of the 
bill, gives a pleasing idea of Mr. Brindley's address in dum% 



B R IN D L E V. 9 

mshing labour by mechanical contrivances. It may here 
be observed, that the bason, in particular, for conveying 
the superfluous water into the Irwell, below the canal, is 
an instance of what an attentive survey of this ingenious 
man's works will abundantly evince, that, where occasiorf 
offered, he well knew how to unite elegance With utility. 

The duke of Bridgewater perceiving, more and more, 
the importance of these inland navigations, extended his 
ideas to Liverpool ; and though he had every difficulty to 
encounter, that could arise from the novelty of, his under- 
takings, or the fears and prejudices of. those whose in- 
terests were likely to be effected by them, his grace hap- 
pily overcame all opposition, and obtained, in 1762, an 
act of parliament for branching his canal to the tideway id 
the Mersey. This part of the canal is carried over the 
livers Mersey and Bollan, and over many wide and deep 
tallies. Over the vallies it is conducted without the assist- 
ance of a single lock ; the level of the water being pre- 
served by raising a mound of earth, and forming therein a 
inould, as it may be called, for the water. Across the val- 
ley at Stretford, through which the Mersey runs, this kind 
or work extends nearly a mile. A person might naturally 
have been led to conclude, that the conveyance of such a 
mass of earth must have employed all the horses and car* 
riages in die country, and that the completion of it would 
be the business of an age. But our excellent mechanic 
made his canal subservient to this part of his design, and 
brought the soil in boats of a peculiar construction, which 
were conducted into caissoons or cisterns. On opening 
the bottoms of the boats, the earth was deposited where it 
. was wanted ; and thus, in the easiest and simplest manner, 
the valley was elevated to a proper level for continuing the 
canal. The ground across the Bollan was raised by tem- 
porary locks, which were formed of the timber used in the 
caissoons just mentioned. In the execution of every part 
of the navigation, Mr. Brindley displayed singular skill 
and ingenuity ; and, in order to facilitate his purpose, he 
produced many valuable machines, which ought never to 
be forgotten in this kingdom. Neither ought the (Economy 
and forecast which are apparent through the whole work to 
be omitted. His ceconomy and forecast are peculiarly dis- 
cernible in the stops, or floodgates, fixed in the canal, 
where it is above the level of the land. These stops are so 
constructed, that, should any of the banks give way, and 



10 B R I N D L E Y. 

thereby occasion a current, the adjoining gates will rise by 
that motion, only, and prevent any other part of the water 
from escaping than what is near the breach between the 
two gates. 

% The success with which £he duke of Bridgewater's under- 
takings were crowned, encouraged a number of gentlemen 
and manufacturers, in Staffordshire, to revive the idea of 
a canal navigation through that cpunty, for the advance- 
ment of the landed interest and the benefit of trade, in 
conveying to market, at a cheaper rate, the products and 
.manufactures of the interior parts of the kingdom. This 
plan was patronized, and generously supported, by lord 
Gower and Mr. Anson ; and it met with the concurrence 
of many persons of rank, fortune, and influence in the 
neighbouring counties. Mr. Brindley was, therefore, en- 
gaged to make a survey from the Trent to the Mersey ; and, 
upon bis reporting that it was practicable to construct a 
canal, from one of these rivers to the. other, and thereby to 
unite the ports of Liverpool and Hull, a subscription for 
carrying it into execution was set on foot in 1765, and an 
act of parliament was obtained in the same year. In 1766, 
this canal, caljed, by the proprietors, " The Canal from 
the Trent to the Mersey," but more emphatically, by the 
engineer, the Grand Trunk Navigation, on account of the 
numerous branches which, he justly supposed, would be 
extended every way from it, was begun ; and, under his 
direction, it was conducted, with great spirit and suc- 
cess, as long as he lived. Mr. Brindley's life not being 
continued to the completion of this important and ar- 
duous undertaking, he left it to be finished by his 
brother-in-law, Mr. Henshall, who put the last hand 
to it, in May 1777, being somewhat less than eleven 
years after its commencement. We need not say, that 
the final execution of the Grand Trunk Navigation gave 
the highest satisfaction to the proprietors, and excited a 
general joy in a populous country, the inhabitants of which 
already receive every advantage they could wish from so 
truly noble an enterprize. This canal is ninety-three miles 
in length ; and, besides a large number of bridges over it, 
has sevepty-six locks and five tunnels. The most remark- 
able of the tunnels is the subterraneous passage "of Hare- 
castle, being 2880 yards in length, and more then seventy 
yards below the surface of the earth. The scheme of this 
inland navigation had employed the thoughts of the inge* 



B R I N D L E Y. 11 

nious part of the kingdom for upwards of twenty years be- 
fore, and some surveys had been made. But Harecastle 
hill, through which the tunnel is constructed, could nei- 
ther be avoided nor overcome by any expedient the ablest 
engineers could devise. It was Mr. Brindley alone who 
surmounted this and other difficulties, arising from the va- 
riety of measures, strata, and quick-sands, which none 
but himself would have attempted. 

Soon after the navigation from the Trent to the Mersey 
was undertaken, application was made to parliament, by 
the gentlemen of Staffordshire and Worcestershire, for 
leave to construct a canal from the Grand Trunk, near Hay- 
wood in Staffordshire, to the river Severn, near Bewdley. 
The act being obtained, the design was executed by our 
great engineer, and hereby the port of Bristol was added 
to the two before united ports of Liverpool and Hull. This 
canal, which is about forty-six miles in length, was com- 
pleted in 1772. Mr. Brindley's next undertaking was the 
purvey and execution of a canal from Birmingham, to unite 
with the Staffordshire and Worcestershirecanal near Wol- 
verhampton. This navigation, which was finished in about 
three years, is twenty-six miles in length. As, by the 
means of it, vast quantities of coals are conveyed to the 
jriver Severn, as well as to Birmingham, where there must 
be a peculiar demand for them, extraordinary advantages 
have hence accrued to manufactures and commerce. Our 
engineer advised the proprietors of the last mentioned na* 
vigation, in order to avoid the inconvenience of locks, and 
to supply the canal more effectually with water, to have a 
tunnel at Smethwick. This would have rendered it a com- 
plete work. But his advice was rejected, and, to supply 
the deficiency, the managers have lately erected two of 
Messrs. Watts and Boulton's steam-engines. The canal 
from Droitwich to the river Severn, for the conveyance of 
salt and coals, was likewise executed by Mr. Brindley. 
By him, also, , the Coventry navigation was planned, and 
it was a short time under his direction. But a dispute 
arising concerning the mode of execution, he resigned his 
office ; which, it is imagined, the proprietors of that un- 
dertaking* have since had cause to lament Some little 
time before his death, Mr. Brindley began the Oxfordshire 
canal. This unites with the Coventry canal, and forms a 
continuation of the Graud Trunk Navigation to Oxford, and 
tkepce by the Thames to London. The canal from Cbes- 



12 B R I N D L E Y. 

terfield to the river Trent at Slbckwith, was the last pub* 
lie undertaking in which Mr. Brindley engaged. He sur- 
veyed and planned the whole, and executed some miles of 
the navigation, which was succesfully 6nished by Mr. Hen- 
shall, in 1777. There were few works of this nature pro* 
jected, in any part of the kingdom, in which our engineer 
was not consulted. He was employed, in particular, by 
the City of London, to survey a course for a canal from 
Sunning, near Reading in Berkshire, to Monkey island, 
near Maidenhead. But when application was made to par- 
liament, for leave to effect the design, the bill met with 
such a violent opposition from the land-owners, that it was 
defeated. 

Mi". Brindley had, for some time, the direction of the 
Calder navigation ; but he declined a farther inspection of 
it, on account of a difference in opinion among the com- 
missioners. In the year 1766, he laid out a canal from the 
river Calder, at Cooper's bridge, to Huddersfield in York- 
shire, which hath since been carried into execution. In 
1768, he revised the plan for the inland navigation from 
Leeds to Liverpool. He was, likewise, at the first general 
meeting of the proprietors after the act of parliament had 
been obtained, appointed the engineer for conducting the 
work : but the multiplicity of his other engagements 
obliged him to decline this employment. In the same year, 
he planned a canal from Stockton, by Darlington, to Win- 
ston in the bishopric of Durham. Three plans, of the like 
iind, were formed by him in 1769; one from Leeds to 
iSelby ; another from the Bristol channel, near Uphill in 
Somersetshire, to Glastonbury, Taunton, Wellington, Ti- 
verton, and Exeter; and a third from Langport, in the 
county of Somerset, by way of Ilminster, Chard, and Ax- 
minster, to the South channel, at Axmototh, in the county 
of Devon. In 1770, he surveyed the country, for a canal 
from ,Andover, by way of Stockbridge and Rumsey, to 
Redbridge, near Southampton; and, in 1771, from Salis- 
bury, by Fordingbridge and Ringwood, to Christchurch. 
He performed the like office, in 1772, for a navigation of 
the same kind, proposed to be carried on from Preston to 
Lancaster, and from thence to Kendal, in Westmoreland. 
He surveyed, likewise, and planned out a canal, to join 
that of the duke of Bridgewater's at Runcorn, from Liver- 
pool. If this scheme had been executed, it was Mr. Brind- 
ley's intention to have constructed the work, by an> aque~ 



BRINDLEY. *3 

4 

4uct over the river Mersey, at a. place where the tide 
flows fourteen feet in height. He also surveyed the county 
qi Chester, for a canal from the Grand Trunk to the city of 
Chester. The plan for joining the Forth and the Clyde 
was revised by him ; and he proposed . some considerable 
alterations, particularly with regard to the deepening of the 
Clyde, which have . been attended to by the managers. 
He was consulted upon several improvements with respect 
to the draining of the low lands, in different parts of Lin- 
colnshire .and the Isle of Ely. A canal was, likewise, laid 
out by him, for uniting that of Chesterfield, by the way 
of Derby, with the Grand Trunk at Swarkstone. To the 
corporation of Liverpool, he gave a plan for cleansing 
their docks of mud. This hath been put into execution 
with the desired effect : and he pointed out, also, the me- 
thod, which has been attended with equal success, of 
building wails against the sea without mortar. The last of 
our great mechanic's ingenious and uncommon contrivan- 
ces, that we shall mention, is his improvement of the ma- 
chine for drawing water out of mines, by a losing and a 
gaining bucket. This be afterwards employed, to advan- 
tage, in raising up coals from the mines. 
• When any extraordinary difficulty occurred to Mr. Brind- 
ley, in the execution of his works, having little or no as- 
sistance from books, or the labours of other men, his re-* 
sources lay within himself. In order, therefore, to be quiet 
and uninterrupted, whilst be was in search of the neces- 
sary expedients, he generally retired to his bed ; and be 
has been known to lie there one, two, or three days, till 
he had attained the object in view. He then would get 
up, and execute his design without any drawing or model; 
Indeed, it never was his custom to make either, unless he 
was obliged to. do it to satisfy his employers. His memory 
was so remarkable, that he has often declared that he 
could remember, and execute, all the parts of the most 
complex machine, provided he had time, in his survey of 
it, to settle in his mind the several departments, and 
their relations to each other. His method of calculating 
the powers of any machine invented by him, was peculiar 
to himself. He worked the question for some time in his 
head, and then put down the results in figures. After 
this, taking it up again in that stage, he worked it farther 
in his mind, for a certain time, and set down the results as 
before. la the same '*ay he still proceeded, making use 



n 



14 B R I N D L E V. 

of figures only at stated periods of the question. Yet the 
ultimate result was generally true, though the road be tra- 
velled in search of it was unknown to all but himself; 
and, perhaps, it would not have been in his power to have, 
shewn it to another. 

The attention which was paid by Mr. Brindley to objects 
of peculiar magnitude did not permit him to indulge him- 
self in the common diversions of life. Indeed, he had not 
the least relish for the amusements to which mankind, in 
general, are so much devoted. He never seemed in his 
element, if he was not either planning or executing some 
great work, or conversing with his friends upon subjects of 
importance. He was once prevailed upon, when in Lon- 
don, to see a play. Having never been at an entertain- 
ment of this kind before, it had a powerful effect upon 
him, and he complained, for several days afterward,* that 
it had disturbed his ideas, and rendered him unfit for busi- 
ness. He declared, therefore, that he would not go to 
another play upon any account. It might, however, have 
contributed to the longer duration of Mr. Brindley' s life, 
and consequently to the farther benefit of the public, if 
he could have occasionally relaxed the tone of his mind. 
His not being able to do so, might not solely arise from the 
vigour of his genius, always bent upon capital designs ; 
but be, in part, the result of that total want of education,* 
which, while it might add strength to his powers in the 
particular way in which they were exerted, precluded him, 
at the same time, from those agreeable reliefs that are ad- 
ministered by miscellaneous reading, and a taste in the 
polite and elegant arts. The only fault he was observed to 
fall into, was his suffering himself to be prevailed upon to 
engage in more concerns than could be completely at- 
tended to by any single man, how eminent soever might 
be his abilities and diligence. It is apprehended that, by 
this means, Mr. Brindley shortened his days, and, in a cer- 
tain degree, abridged his usefulness. There is, at least, 
the utmost reason to believe, that his intense application, 
in general, to the important undertakings he had in hand; 
brought on a hectic fever, which continued upon him, 
with little or no intermission, for some years, and at 
length terminated his life. He died, at Turnhurst, in 
Staffordshire, on the 30th of September, 1772, in the 
56th year of his age, and was buried at New chapel in the 
same county, where an altar-tomb has been erected to his 



BRIND L E Y. 15 

memory. The vast works Mr. Brindley was engaged in at 
the time of his death, he left to be carried on and com- 
pleted by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henshall, for whom he 
had a peculiar regard, and of whose integrity and abilities 
in conducting these works, he had the highest opinion. 

Thns was the world- deprived, at a comparatively early 
period, of this great genius 

'* Of mother wit, and wise without the schools," 

who very soon gave indications of uncommon talents, and 
extensive views, in the application of mechanical princi- 
ples ; and who, by a happy concurrence of circumstances^ 
the chief of which was the patronage of bis grace the duke 
of Bridgewater, was favoured with an opportunity of un- 
folding and displaying his wonderful powers, in the exe- 
cution of works new to this country, and .such as will ex- 
tend his fame, and endear his memory, to future times. The 
public could only recognize the merit of this extraordinary 
man in the stupendous undertakings which he carried to. 
perfection, and exhibited to general view. But those who 
had the advantage of conversing with him familiarly, and 
of knowing him well in his private character, .respected 
him still more for the uniform and unshaken integrity of 
his conduct ; for his steady attachment to the interest of 
the community ; for the vast compass of his understanding* 
which seemed to. have % natural affinity with all grand ob- 
jects; and, Jikewise, for many noble and beneficent de- 
signs, constantly generating in his mind, and which the 
multiplicity of his engagements, and the shortness of his 
life, prevented him from bringing to maturity. l 
■ BRINSLEY (John), a. non T conformist divine, was born 
at Ashby-de-la-Zoucb, in Leicestershire, in 1600. His 
father was also a divine of the puritan kind,, and master of 
the school at Asbby* The noted astrologer William Lilly, 
was at bis school in 1613. His mother was sister to bishop 
Hall. : After being educated by his father, he was admitted 
of Emanuel college, Cambridge, at the age of thirteen 
and a half. . Having resided there three or four years, he 
attended his uncle Hall, then dean of Worcester, as his 
amanuensis, to the synod of JDort, and after his return, 
resumed his studies at Cambridge, and being elected scho-< 

1 Biog. Brit, an artiele procured from Mr. Hon shall, Brindley's brother-in- 
law, by Messrs.. Wedg* wood and Bentley, and much of it drawn np by the lat«" 
ttr.— PhUips's Hist, of Inland Navigation, &c. 



16 3 A I N S L E Y. 

Jar of the bouse, resided there until he took his degrees* 
When ordained he preached first at Preston, near Chelms- 
ford, then at Somerleyton in Suffolk, and lastly was caHed 
to Yarmouth, on the election of the township, but his prin- 
ciples being objected to by Dr. Harsnet, bishop of Nor- 
wich, be could only preach on the week days at a country 
village adjoining, whither the people of Yarmouth fol- 
lowed hipa, until the township applied to the king for his 
licence for Mr. Brinsley to preach in Yarmouth. This 
being granted by his majesty, be remained there until the 
restoration, when he was ejected with his numerous bre- 
thren, who refused the terms of conformity. Although a 
man of moderate sentiments, he appears to have been in- 
flexible in the points which divided so large a body of 
clergymen from the church, and is said to have refused 
considerable preferment to induce him to remain in ifc 
He is praised by his biographer for piety, and extensive 
learning in theology. He died Jan, 22, 1665. Ha wrote 
several treatises enumerated by Calamy, none of which, 
we believe, are now much known. He had a son, Robert, 
who was ejected from the university, and afterwards stu- 
died and took his degree of M. D, at Leyden, and prac- 
tised at Yarmouth. J 

BRISSON (Barnaby), president of the parliament of 
Paris, and an eminent lawyer, was born at Fontenay ia 
Poictou, about the middle of the sixteenth century. He 
appeared at first with great eclat at the bar of the parlia- 
ment; and, by his knowledge and skill in the law, ite* 
commended himself so powerfully to Henry HI. of France* 
that this prince first made him his advocate general, tbeii 
counsellor of state, and in 1580, honoured him with the 
dignity of president of the parliament. Scaevola Sammar- 
thanus relates, that Henry IIL declared in his hearirtg} 
that there was not a prince in Christendom, who could 
boast of so learned a man as Barnaby Brissott. The king 
employed him in several negociations, and rent him am- 
bassador into England. At his return, he employed him td 
make a collection of his own ordinances, and of thos& of 
his predecessors ; which he performed with wonderful ex- 
pedition. He wrote some works in law: " De verbofurai, 
queD ad jus pertinent, significatione." " De fortnuiis et 
sojemnibus populi Romani verbis," Paris, 1583, fol. »" De 

1 Calamy.— Lillys Life and Times, p. 5, 6, 8, edit, 1774. 



BRISSOK. 17 

*egio Persarum principatu, 9 ' &c. 1580, 1590, 1599, 8to; 
1606, 4to ; but the best edition is that of Strasburgh, 1710, 
8vo, with Sylburgius' notes. He gave 4ti expectation of 
more considerable performances; but his life was shortened 
by a very unfortunate accident Living at Paris when! 
t^at rebellious city was besieged by Henry IV. he demon- 
strated against the treasonable practices of the leaguers, 
who, under pretence of the holy union, contemned the 
royal authority, which was much more sacred. These re- 
ligious traitors, being dissatisfied with his loyalty, fell vio- 
lently upon him, dragged him to prison, and cruelly 
strangled him the 1 5th of Nov. 1591. ' 

BR1SSOT (Peter), an eminent French physician, waa 
born at Fontenai-le-Comte, in Poitou^ 1478, and about 
1495 was sent to Paris, where he went through a course 
of philosophy under Villemar, a famous professor of those 
times. By his advice, Brissot resolved to be a physician, 
and studied phytic there for four years. Then he began 
to teach philosophy in the university of Paris ; and, v a7ter 
he had done this for ten years, prepared himself for the 
examinations necessary to his doctor of physic's degree; 
which he took in May 1514. Being one of those men 
who are not contented with custom and tradition*, but 
choose to examine for themselves, he made an exact com- 
parison between the practice of his own times and the 
doctrine of Hippocrates and Galen : and he found that the 
Arabians had introduced many things into physib that were 
contrary to the doctrine of those two great masters, and to 
reason and experience. He set himself therefore to re- 
form physic ; and for this purpose undertook publicly to 
explain Galen's books, instead of those of Avicenna, Rha« 
sis, and Mesu'f, which were commonly explained in the 
schools of physic ; but, finding himself obstructed in the 
work of reformation by his ignorance of botany, he resolved 
to travel, in order to acquire the knowledge bf plants, and 

}>ut himself into a capacity of correcting pharmacy. Be- 
ore^ however, he left Paris, he undertook to convince the 
public of what he deemed an inveterate err >r ; but which 
now is considered as a matter of little consequence. The 
constant practice of physicians, in the pleurisy^ was to 
bleed from the arm, not on the side where the distemper 
was, but the opposite side. Brissot disputed about it in 

1 Morrri.— Cbaufepie. — Diet Hist. — Frefceri Tkeatnim.— Blount's Censura. 
—Mem nr» of Literature, vol. IV. p. 7. 

Vol. VII. C 



y 



18 B R I S S O T. 

the physic-schools, confuted that practice, and shewed 
chat it was falsely pretended to be agreeable to the doc- 
trine of Hippocrates and Galen. He then left Paris in 
1518, and went to Portugal, stopping there at Ebora^ 
whefe he practised physic ; but his new way of bleeding 
in* the pleurisy, notwithstanding his great success, did not 
please every body. He received a long and rude letter 
about it from Denys, physician to the king of Portugal ; 
which he answered, and would have published if death had 
not prevented him in 1522. It was printed, however, three 
years after at Paris, and reprinted at Basil in 1529. Re- 
natus Moreau published a new edition of it at Paris in 
1622, with a treatise of his own, " De missione sanguinis 
in pleuritide," and the life of "Brissot ; out of which this 
account is taken. He never would marry, being of opinion 
that matrimony did not well agree with study. One thing 
is related of him, which his biographer, rather uncharita- 
bly, says, deserves to be taken notice of, because it is 
singular in the men of his profession; and it is, that he 
did not love gain. He cared so little for it, that when he 
was called to a sick person, he looked into his purse ; and, 
if he found but two pieces of gold fn it, refused to go. 
This, "however, it is acknowledged, was owing to his great 
love of study, from which it was very difficult to take him. 
The dispute between Denys and Brissot raised a kind of 
civil war among the Portuguese physicians. The business 
was brought before the tribunal of the university of Sala- 
manca, where it was thoroughly discussed by the faculty 
of physic ; but in the mean time, the partisans of Denys 
had recourse to the authority of the secular power, and 
obtained a decree, forbidding physicians to bleed on the 
fcame side in which the pleurisy was. At last the univer- 
sity of Salamanca gave their judgment ; importing, that 
the opinion of Brissot was the true doctrine of Hippocrates 
and Galen. The followers of Denys appealed to the em- 
peror about 1529, thinking themselves superior both in 
authority and number ; and the matter was brought before 
Charles V. They were not contented to call the doctrine 
of their adversaries false ; they added that it was impious, 
mortal, and as pernicious to the body as Luther's schism 
to the soul. They not only blackened the reputatioti of 
their adversaries by private arts, but also openly accused 
them of ignorance and rashness,, of attempts on. religion, 
and of being downright Lutherans in physic. It fell out 



BRISSOf. 19 

unluckily 'for them, that Charles III. duke of Savoy, hap-»; 
pened to die of a pleurisy, after he had been bled accord- 
ing .to. the practice which Brissot opposed. Had it not 
been for this, the emperor, it is thought, would have grant- 
ed every thing that Brissot's adversaries desired of him ; 
but this accident induced him to leave. the cause undecided. 
"Two things," says Bayle, in his usual prattling way^ 
" occur in this relation* which all wise men must needs 
condemn; namely, the base, the disingenuous, the. unphi- 
losophic custom of interesting religion in disputes about 
science, and the folly and absurdity. of magistrates to be 
concerned in such disputes. A magistrate is for the most 
part a very incompetent judge of such matters ; and, as her 
knows nothing of them, so he ought to. imitate Gallio in 
this at least, that is, not to care for them ; but to leave 
those whose business it is, to fight it out among themselves. 
Besides, authority has nothing to do with philosophy and 
the sciences ; it should be kept at a great distance froth; 
them, for the same reason that armed forces are removed 
from a borough at the time of a general assize ; namely, 
that reason and equity may have, their full play." l 

BRISSOT DE WARVILLE (James Peter), a very, 
active agent in the French revolution, and a victim to the 
tyranny he had created, was the son of the master of an 
eating-house, and boru in 1754 at Chartres in the Orlean- 
nois. After receiving a good education, he was intended 
for the. bar, but having served a clerkship for five years^ 
he relinquished the further prosecution of the law, in or- 
der to study literature and the sciences ; and an accidental 
acquaintance with some Englishmen, and the perusal of 
some English books, seem to have confirmed this determi- 
nation. About this time be changed, the appellation, of 
" de Ouarvilie" to that of Warville, agreeable to the Eng- 
lish pronunciation. Having by relinquishing the law in- 
curred his father's displeasure* he was indebted tq the 
bounty of some .friends, who enabled him to prosecute his 
studies at Paris for two years r after which he became edi* 
tor of the " Courier de TEurope," a paper printed at Bou> 
logne ; but this being discontinued on account of some ar- 
ticles inimical to government, he returned to Paris, and in 
imitation of Voltaire, Diderot, and D'Alembert, who, aa 
he imagined, had destroyed religious tyranny,, began to 

» Baylt.— Moreri.— Haller Bibl. Med, Pract. 

C 2 



20 B R I S S O T. 

attempt the destruction of political tyranny, which he fan- 
cied was reserved for his irresistible pen. To develope the 
whole of his plan, however, was not his aim at first : and 
be began, therefore, with attacking such abuses as might 
have been removed without any injury to an established con- 
stitution, but which, as they could not be wholly denied, he 
endeavoured to trace from the very nature of monarchy. 
With this view he published some works on criminal juris- 
prudence, as, in 1780, his "Theory of Criminal laws," 2 
vols. 8vo, and two papers arising out of the subject, which 
gained the prize in 1782, at the academy of Chalons-sur- 
Marne. He also began a work which was afterwards com- 
pleted in 10 vols, .8vo, " A philosophical library of the 
criminal law," and a volume concerning "Truth" and 
"Thoughts on the means of attaining Truth in all the 
branches of human knowledge," which he intended mere- 
ly as an introduction to a work on a more enlarged and 
comprehensive plan. To all these he annexed ideas of sin- 
gular importance and utility, although his notions are 
crude, and his knowledge superficial* 

Brissot, at the period of his residence at Boulogne, had 
been introduced to mademoiselle Dupont, who was em- 
ployed under mad. de Genlis as reader to the daughter of 
the duke of Orleans, and whose mother kept a lodging- 
house in that place: and having married this lady, he 
found it necessary to exert his literary talents for gaining 
a subsistence. But as France did not afford that liberty, 
which he wished to indulge, he formed a design of printing, 
in Swisserland or Germany, a series of works in a kind of 
periodical publication, under the title of " An universal 
Correspondence on points interesting to the welfare of 
Man and of Society," which he proposed to smuggle into 
France. With this view, he visited Geneva and NeQ- 
ehatel, in order to establish correspondences ; and he also 
made a journey to London, which was to be the central 
point of the establishment, and the fixed residence of the 
writers. His intentions, however, were divulged by the 
treachery of some of his confidential associates ; and the 
scheme totally failed. During his abode in London, he 
concerted the plan of a periodical work or journal, on the 
literature, arts, and politics of England, which, being pub- 
lished in London, was allowed to be reprinted at Paris, and 
first appeared in J 784. The avowed object of this publi- 
cation, as he himself declares, was " the universal eman- 



B R I S S O T. 21 

/ * 

w 

cipation of men." In London, he was arrested for debt ; 
but, being liberated by the generosity of a friend, he re- 
turned to Paris, where he was committed to the Bastille 
in July 1784, on the charge of being concerned in a very 
obnoxious publication. Put by the interest of the duke 
of Orleans, he was released, on condition of never residing 
in England, and discontinuing his political correspondence* 
In 1735, he published two letters to the emperor Joseph 
II. " Concerning the Right of Emigration, and the Right 
of the People to revolt," which, he applied particularly to 
the case of the Walachians : and in the following year ap- 
peared bis " Philosophical Letters on the History of Eng- 
land," in 2 vols, and " A critical Examination of the Tra- 
vels of the marquis de Chatelleux in North America." With 
a view of promoting a ilose, political, and commercial 
union between France and the United States, he wrote in 
1787, with the assistance of Claviere, a tract, entitled 
u De la France et des Etats Unis, &c." " On France and 
the United States ; or on the Importance of the American 
Revolution to the kingdom of France, and the reciprocal 
advantages which will accrue from a commercial Inter- 
course between the two nations." Of this work, an Eng- 
lish translation was published, both in England and Ame- 
rica. At this time he was in the service of the duke of 
Orleans, as secretary to his chancery, with a handsome 
salary, and apartments in the palais royal ; and, without 
doubt, employed in aiding that monster in his schemes of 
ambition. In this situation, he wrote a pamphlet against 
the administration of the archbishop of Sens, entitled " No 
Bankruptcy, &c." which occasioned the issuing of a lettre 
de cachet against him. But to avoid its effect, he went 
to Holland, England, and the Low Countries; and at 
Mechlin, he edited a newspaper, called " Le Courier Bel- 
gique." For the purpose of promoting the views of a so- 
ciety at Paris, denominated " Les Amis des Noirs," and 
established for the purpose of abolishing negro slavery, he 
embarked for America in 1>788 ; and, during his residence 
in that country, he sought for a convenient situation, in 
which a colony of Frenchmen might be organized into a 
republic, according to his ideas of political liberty. But 
his return was hastened in 1789 by the intelligence he 
received of the progress of the French revolution. After 
his arrival, he published his "Travels in America;" (Nou- 
veau Voyage daps les Etats Unis, &c. Pyuria, 1791, 3 vols. 



it B R I S S O T, 

8vo), and as he found the attention of the public directed 
to the approaching assembly of the states- general/ he 
Wrote his " Plan of Conduct for the Deputies of the Peo- 
ple." At this time, he had withdrawn from the partisans of 
the duke of Orleans; and he took an active part in the 
plans that were then projected for the organization of the* 
people, with a view to their union and energy in accom- 
plishing the revolution. To the lodgings of Brissot, as sv 
person who was held in estimation at this period, the keys 
of the Bastille, when it was taken, were conveyed ; he also 
became president of the Jacobin club ; and he distinguished 
himself in various ways as a zealous promoter of those 
revolutionary principles, which afterwards gave occasion 
to a great number of atrocious excesses. After the king's 
flight to Varennes, Brissot openly supported the republican 
cause ; but, as some form of monarchy was still the object 
of the national wish, he was obliged to restrain his impe- 
tuosity. The popularity acquired by his writings and 
conduct was such, as to induce the Parisians to return hint 
as one of their members in the " Legislative national as- 
sembly," which succeeded the " Constituent assembly,** 
in October 1791, of which assembly he was appointed se- 
cretary ; and he became afterwards a member of the com- 
mittee of public instruction. Although inferior to many 
others in talents and knowledge, his activity raised him to 
the rank of head or chief, in the party denominated " Gi«i 
rondists" or " La Gironde," the name of the department 
to which several of its members belonged, and also frorq 
his own name " Brissotins." In his career of ambition, he 
does not seem to have been influenced by pecuniary ccn- 
siderations ; power, more than wealth, being the object of 
his aim ; for, at this time, he and his family lodged in an 
apartment up four pair of stairs, and subsisted on his sti- 
pend as deputy, and the inconsiderable gains accruing 
from a newspaper. As a determined enemy to monarchy, 
he was unremitting in his efforts to engage the nation in a 
war, with the avowed purpose of involving the king and 
his ministers in difficulties which would terminate in their 
ruin, and this part of his political conduct must ever bfe 
lamented and execrated by the friends of freedom and of 
mankind. In the impeachment of M. Delessart, the mi- 
nister for foreign affairs, Brissot took a principal lead ; and 
alleged against him several articles of accusation, in con- 
sequence of which, he was Apprehended, tried by .the higfy 



BR IS S O r T: M 

national court at Orleans, and condemned to die, without 
being first beard in his own defence, so that he became 
the first victim to that desperate faction, which afterwards 
deluged France with blood. His colleagues were so com- 
pletely terrified by this event, that they requested leave to 
resign, and the ministry was at once completely dissolved* 
The ir successors, appointed by. the king, under the direc- 
tion and influence of Brissot, were Dumourier, Roland, and 
Claviere. This appointment was followed by a declaration 
ol war, decreed by the national assembly, against the king- 
of Hungary aud Bohemia ; and Brissot, during the exist- 
ence of this administration, which terminated soon, wa* 
considered as the most powerful person in France. About 
this time, Brissot began to entertain secret jealousy and 
suspicion of La Fayette,-, and concurred with other mem* 
bers of the assembly, in signing an accusation against him,, 
which, however, he wasrnot able to substantiate. He aud his 
republican party were likewise industrious in their endea- 
vours to throw an odium on the court, by alleging, that a~ 
private correspondence was carried on between the king 
and queen and the emperor ; and they even averred, that 
an " Austrian Committee, 9 ' and a conspiracy iu favour of 
the enemies of the country, existed among the friends of 
the court. The charge seemed to. be unsupported by suffi- 
cient evidence ; the king publicly contradicted these accu- 
sations as calumnies; nevertheless, they made no small 
impression on the minds of the public. To the writings 
and conduct of Brissot, the horrid massacres at the Tuil- 
leries, on the 10th of August, 1792, have been principally- 
ascribed ; and it is a poor excuse that he is said to have 
preserved the lives of several of the Swiss guards on that 
fatal day. He was employed to draw up the declaration to 
the neutral powers concerning the suspension of the king's 
authority ; but he is said to have regarded with horror the 
sanguinary spirit that was now predominant among the 
leaders of the jacobins. Whilst, indeed, he was ascending 
to the pinnacle of power, he seems to have been the ardent 
advocate of insurrection and the revolutionary power : but 
a* he found himself raised to that station, he, began to in- 
culcate " order and the constitution," the usual cant of all 
demagogues who think they have attained their object. 
In the shocking massacre of the prisoners at Paris in Sep- 
tember, he had probably no other conpern, than the in- 
fluftice ; which his irritating speeches and writings had 



U B R I S S O T, 

treated on the minds of the more active agents. When 
the •* National convention," the idea of which is said to 
have been suggested by him, assumed the direction of the 
state, and assembled on the 20th of September, i792, he 
was returned as member for the department of Eure and 
Loire, his native country. In this assembly, he openly 
avowed himself an advocate for a republican government, 
in opposition both to the Jacobins and Orleanists 5 and was 
expelled the Jacobin club. On this occasion, he wrote a 
vindication of bis public condpct, under the title of " An 
Address to all the Republicans." He is said to have been 
$0 far shocked by the prospect of the fatal issue of the 
king's trial, as to have attempted the preservation of bis 
life, by deferring his execution till the constitution should 
be perfected ; a proposition of which the absurdity and 
cruelty are nearly equal. The war with England, which 
soon followed the death of Louis, is ascribed to his ardour 
and credulity ; for he was led to imagine, that the conse- 
quence of it would be a civil war in this country ; and it is 
Said, that this, as well as the war with Holland, was decreed 
in the national convention, Feb. 1, 1793, at his motion. 
This charge, however, he retorts on bis accusers, and says, 
that the anarchists, by voting the death of the king, were 
themselves the authors of the war. 

Brissot's influence now gradually declined ; and his party 
was at length overpowered by a more violent and san- 
guinary faction, denominated the " Mountain/ 9 so called 
from its members usually sitting in the convention, on the 
upper seats of the hall, at the head of which was Robes? 
pierre, of execrable memory. The treachery and deser? 
tion of Dumourier likewise contributed to hasten the down* 
fel of this party. To their imbecility or perfidy, the public 
calamities that threatened the country, were generally as? 
cribed ; and, after the establishment of the " Revolutionary 
tribunal,*' for the purpose of trying crimes committed 
against the state, in March 1793, a petition was presented 
in the following month by the communes of the 48 sections' 
of Paris, requiring that the chiefs of the Girondists, or Brja* 
potins, denounced in it, should be impeached, arid expelled 
the convention. In May and June decrees of arrest were 
issued against them ; and against Brissot among the rest, 
who attempted to make his escape ipto bwisaejrland, but 
fvas stopped and imprisoned ; and in the following October, 
he and 21 of bife associates were brought beforethe revolu- 



B R I S S O T. 2$ 

lionary tribunal Brissot, who was elevated in the miist 
of them, maintained a firm and tranquil mind ; but, though 
their accusers could support their charges by little moid 
than mere surmises, the whale party was immediately con- 
demned to the scaffold ; and next morning were led td 
execution. There Brissot, after seeing- the blood of 16 
associates stream from the scaffold, submitted to the stroke 
with the utmost composure. In the relations of private 
life, his character stands without reproach ; but these af- 
ford no counterpoise to his public conduct; and although 
his sentence was unjust as coming from men as guilty as 
himself, it was the natural consequence of a tyranny to the 
establishment of which he had contributed more largely 
♦than most of his countrymen. » 

BR1STOW (Richard), an eminent Roman catholic 
priest and writer in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was born 
at Worcester, in 1538. In 1555 he was entered of Exeter 
college, Oxford, according to Pits, Which Wood doubts; 
but he took his degree of B. A. in 1559, and M. A. in 1562, 
at which last time he was a member of Christ church. He 
*nd the celebrated Campian were so esteemed for their 
talents, as to be selected to entertain queen Elizabeth with 
a public disputation in 1566. Bristow was afterwards, iti 
July 1567, made a fellow of Exeter college, by the interest 
of sir William Petre, who bad founded some fellowships in 
that college, and who would have promoted him further, 
had he not laid himself open to the suspicion of holding 
popish tenets; and this appeared more plainly by his quit- 
ting the university on cardinal Alan's invitation/ He went 
then, to Do way, and after prosecuting his theological stu- 
dies in that academy, was admitted to his doctor's degree 
jo 1579, and, says his biographer, was Alan's "right hand 
upon all occasions." He was made prefect of studies, 
lectured on the scriptures, and in the absence of Alan acted 
as regent of the college. His intense studies, however, 
injured a constitution originally very weak, and after a 
journey to Spa, which had very little effect, he was recom- 
mended to try his native air. On his return to England, 
he resided for a very short time with a Mr. Bellamy, a gen* 
tieman of fortune, at Harrow on the Hill, where he died 
Oct. IB, 1581. The popish historians concur in express* 
ing the loss their cause suffered by his death, he being 

i Life, 1794, Sro.~Bk>grephie RKM)erae«-~Ree*>i Cyctopaodi*. 



tS , ERI8TOV. 

tefcjjied " an Alan in prudence,- a Stapleton in acuteness, a 
Campian in eloquence, a Wright in theology, and a Mar* 
tin in languages." He wrote, 1. " Dr. Bristow's motives,** 
Antwerp, 1574, 1599, 8vo, translated afterwards into La- 
tin, by Dr. Worthington, Doway, 1 608, 4to. 2- " A Re- 
ply to William Fulk (his ablest antagonist), in defence of 
Dr. Allen (Alan's) articles, and book of purgatory," Lou- 
vain, 1580, 4to. 3. " Fifty-one demands, to be proposed 
by catbQlics to heretics," London, .1592, 4to. 4. " Veri* 
tates Aureae S. H. Ecclesise," 1616. 5. " Tabula in sum- 
roam theologicam S. Thorn® Aquinatis," 1579. He wrote 
also, " An Apology in defence of Alan and himself," and 
notes upon the Rueims Testament. * 

BRITANNICO (John Angelo), an eminent Italian* 
scholar of the fifteenth century, was born in the Brescian 
territory, of a family originally from: Great Britain ; and 
having studied at Padua about the year 1470, kept school 
at Brescia, and distinguished himself by several learned 
annotations on various classic authors, particularly Juvenal, 
Lucan, Horace, Persius, and Statius in his Achiileid. He 
also wrote grammatical and other tracts, and an eulogy on 
Bartholomew Cajetan. He is supposed not to have long 
survived the year 1518, and did not live to publish his 
notes upon Pliny's Natural History. His Statius was pub- 
lished in 1485, fol. and his Juvenal in 1512, Venice, fol. • ' 

BRITO (Bernard de), a Portuguese historian, was born 
at Almeida, Aug. 20, 1569, and entered young into the 
order of the Cistercians, by whom he was sent to Italy to 
be educated. During his studies be betrayed much more 
fondness for history than for philosophy or divinity, yet 
did not neglect the latter so far as to be unable to teach 
both, which he did with reputation on his return home. 
His abilities in investigating the affairs of Portugal pro* 
cured him the office of first historiographer of Portugal, 
and he was the first who endeavoured to give a regular - 
form to its history, two folio volumes of which he pub* 
lished in 1597, at Alcobaga, and 1609, at Lisbou, under 
the title of " Monarcbia Lusitana." It is written with ele* 
gance ; and was brought down to Alfonsus III. by Antony 
and Francis Brandano, monks of the same order, making 
in all 7 vols. He published also, 2. .Panegyrics of the 

> - ... 

1 Dodd's Ch. Hist. vol. II — Pits.— Taimer.— Ath. Ox. vol. I. 
• Gen. Djct*— 'Mortri.— Saxii Onopaast. 



B,R I T O, - 27 

m ■ 

kings of Portugal, with their portraits. 3. Ancient Geo- 
graphy of Portugal. 4. Chronicle of the Cistercian order* 
The " Guerra Brasilica," Lisbon, 1675, 2 vols, folio, is 
by Francis de Brito, a different person from Bernard, who 
died in 1617. l 

BRITTON (Thomas), a very singular personage, known 
by the name of the Musical Small-coal Man, was born at 
or near Higbam Ferrers, in Northamptonshire, about the 
middle of the seventeenth century, and went from thence 
to London, where he bound himself apprentice to a small- 
coal man. He served seven years, and returned to North- 
amptonshire, his master giving him a sum of money not 
to set up : .but, after this money was spent, he returned again 
to 'London, and set up the trade of small-coal, which he 
continued to the end of his life. Some time after he had 
been settled in business here, he became acquainted with 
jUAfht ¥* T * Garaniere, his neighbour, an eminent chemist, who, 
,^£ r .g admitting mm into his laboratory, Tom, with the doctor's 
consent, and his own observation, soon became a notable 
chemist ; contrived and built himself a moving laboratory, 
in which, according to Hearne, " he performed with little 
espence and trouble such things as had never been done 
before." Besides his great skill in chemistry, he became 
a practical, and, as was thought, a theoretical musician. 
Tradition only informs us that be was very fond of music, 
and that he was able to perform oft the viol da gamba at 
hfe own concerts, which be at first established gratis in his 
miserable house, which was an old mean building, the 
ground-floor of which was a repository for his small- coal ; 
over this was his concert-room, long, low, and narrow, to 
which there was no other ascent than by a pair of stairs oa 
the outside, so perpendicular and narrow, as scarcely to 
be mounted without crawling. 

Hearne allows him to have been a very diligent collec- 
tor of old books of all kinds, which, in his courses through 
the town crying his small-coal, he had a good opportunity 
*of doing at stalls, where he used to stop and select , for 
purchase whatever was ancient, particularly on his two fa* 
vourite subjects of chemistry and music. On the former, 
v it has naturally been suggested that, he had picked up 
books oh Rosier ucian mysteries, and not impossible but 
that he may have wasted some of his small-coals in the 
great secrets of alchemy in the .transmutation of metals. 

1 Moreri,— Diet. Hist 



2* BRIT.TON. 

With respect to music, be collected all the elementary 
books in English that were then extant ; such as Morley's. 
introduction, Simpson's division violist, Playford, Butler, 
Bath, and Mace ; nine books of instruction for the psal- 
mody, flute, and mock trumpet. But besides his vast 
collection of printed music, the catalogue of which fills 
eight pages iu 4to, of sir J. Hawkins's Hist, of Music, he 
teems to have been such an indefatigable copyist, that he 
is said to have transcribed with his own hand, very neatly 
and accurately, a collection of music which sold after his 
decease for near 100/, 

Mr. Walpole, in his Anecdotes, says, that " Woolaston 
the painter, who was a good performer on the violin and 
flute, had played at the concert held at the house of that 
extraordinary person, Thomas Britton the small-coal man, 
whose picture he twice drew, one of which was purchased 
by sir Hans Sloane, and is now in the British museum : 
there is a mezzotinto from it. T. Britton, who made much 
noise in his time, considering his low station and trade, 
was a collector of all sorts of curiosities, particularly 
drawings, prints, books, manuscripts on uncommon sub- 
jects, as mystic divinity, the philosopher's stone, judicial 
astrology, and magic ; and musical instruments, both in 
and out of vogue. Various were the opinions concerning 
him ; some thought his musical assembly only a cover for 
seditious meetings ; others, for magical purposes. He 
was taken for an atheist, a presbyterian, a Jesuit. But 
Woolaston the painter, and the son of a gentleman who 
fcad'likewise been a member of that club, averred it a& 
their opinions, that Britton was a plain, simple, honest 
man, who only meant to amuse himself. The subscrip- 
tion was but ten shillings a year ; Britton found the instru- 
ments, and they had coffee at a penny a dish. Sir Hans 
Sloane bought many of his books and MSS. now in the 
Museum, when they were sold by auction at Tom's coffee- 
house, near Ludgate.*' 

Dr. Burney in early life conversed with members of this 
concert, who spoke of him in the same manner. So late 
as the middle of the last century, mezzotinto prints of him 
were in all the print-shops, particularly an excellent one 
by Smith, under which} and almost all the prints of Britton, 
were the following verses, by Hughes, who frequently per- 
formed on the violin at the concerts of this ingenious 
small-coal man: 



B R I T T O N. M 

«* Though mean thy rank, yet in thy humble eeH 
Did gentle peace, and arts, unpurchased, dwells 
Well pleased, Apollo thither led his train, 
And music warbled in her sweetest strain. 
Cyllenius so, as fables tell, and Jove, 
Came willing guests to poor Philemon's grove. 
Let useless pomp behold, and blush to find, 
So low a station, such a liberal mind." 

In most of the prints, he was represented with his sack 
of small-coal on his shoulder, and his measure of retail in 
his hand. In the Guardian, No. 144, Steele, speaking of the 
variety of original and odd characters, which our free go- . 
vernment produces, says: " We have a small-coal man, who 
beginning with two plain notes, which made up his daily 
cry, has made himself master of the whole compass of the 
gammut, and has frequent concerts of music at his own 
house, for the entertainment of himself and friends." 

But the assertion of sir John Hawkins, that Britton was 
the first who had a meeting that corresponded with the 
idea of a concert, is not correct : in the time of Charles I. 
and during the usurpation, at Oxford, meetings for the 
performance of Fancies in six and seven parts, which pre- 
ceded sonatas and concerts, were very common. And in 
Charles the Second's time, Banister, father and son, had 
concerts, first at taverns and public-houses, and after- 
wards at York-buildings. It is, perhaps, not a matter 
worthy of dispute ; but we imagine that it would be diffi- 
cult to prove that Handel ever played at the small-coal 
man's concert. Handel was proud, and never had much 
respect for English composers. He had been caressed and 
patronised by princes and nobles so long, that be would as 
soon have gone into a coal-pit to play at a concert, as to the 
hovel of our vender of small- coal. 

About the commencement of the last century, a passion 
prevailed among several persons of distinction, of collecting 
old books and MSS. ; and it was their Saturday's amuse- 
ment during winter, to ramble through various quarters of 
the town in pursuit of these treasures. The earls of Ox- 
ford, Pembroke, Sunderland, and Winchelsea, and the 
duke of Devonshire, were of this party, and Mr. Bagford 
and other collectors assisted them in their researches. 
Britton appears to have been employed by them ; and, as 
he was a very modest, decent, and unpresuming man, he 
was a sharer in their conversation, when they met after 
their morning's walk, at a bookseller'sshop in Ave- Maria lane. 



; 



to britton; 

Britton usfcd to pitch his coal-sack on a Uulk at the doofrV 
and* dressed in his blue frock, to step in and spend an hour 
with the company. But it was not only by a few literary 
lords that his acquaintance was cultivated ; his humble roof 
was frequented by assemblies of the fair and the gay ; and 
his fondness for music caused him to be known by many 
dilettanti and professors, who formed themselves into a club 
at his hoiise, where capital pieces were played by some 
of the first professional artists, and other practitioners } 
and here Dubourg, % when a child, played, standing upon a 
joint-stool, the first solo that he ever executed in public. 

The circumstances of his death were very extraordinary. 
A ventriloquist was introduced into his company by one 
justice Robe, who was fond of mischievous jests. This 
man, in a voice seemingly coming from a distance, an T 
nounced to poor Britton his approaching end, and bid him: 
prepare for it, by repeating the Lord's prayer on his knees. 
The poor man did so, but the affair dwelt so much upon 
his imagination, that he died in a few days, leaving justice 
Robe to enjoy the fruits of his mirth. His death hap- 
pened in September, 1714, when he was upwards of sixty 
years of age. 

Britton's wife survived her husband. He left little behind 
him, except his books, his collection of manuscript and 
printed music, and musical instruments ; all which were 
sold by auction, and catalogues of them are in the hands 
of some collectors of curiosities. His instrumental music 
consists of 160 articles; his vocal, of 42 ; 11 scores; in- 
struments, 27. All these are specified in Hawkins's His- 
tory of music, but we shall add the title-page of the ca- 
talogue of his library : " The library of Mr. Thomas 
Britton, small-coal man, decease^; who, at his own charge, 
kept up a concert of music above forty years, in his little 
cottage; being a curious collection of every ancient and 
uncommon book in divinity, history, physic, chemistry^ 
magick, &c. Also a collection of MSS. chiefly on vellum, 
which will be sold by auction at Paul's coffee-house, &c. 
Jan. 1714-1 V &c. It contained 102 articles in folio > 
270 in 4to; 664 in 8vo ; 50 pamphlets, and twenty-three 
•MSS. A few of the works in 8vo were sufficiently ama- 
tory. A copy of this now very rare catalogue is in Mr. > 
Heber's excellent library. l 

1 Hawkins's Hist, of Music— Walpole's Anecdotes of Painters. — Rees's Cy* 
clopsedia. — Annual Register, vols. VHI. and XX. — Spectator, with notes, roll 
VIII. p. 205.— Guardian, vol. II. 330.— Dibdin's Bibliomania. 



B R I X I U 8. 3i 

BRIXIUS* or DE BRIE (Germain), U learned French- 
man, was born about the end of the fifteenth century, at 
Auxerre, or in that diocese ; and in his education made 
great progress in the learned languages, particularly the 
Greek, from which he translated into Latin, Chrysostom's 
treatise on the priesthood ; his first eight homilies oh the 
epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, and some other works, 
which contributed very much to his reputation. He used 
frequently to compose Greek verses, with which he enter- 
tained the literati at his house, where they were sure of an 
open table. From 1512 he was secretary to queen Anne, 
and archdeacon of Albi. In 1515 he had a canonry con- 
ferred upon him in the church of Auxerre, which, in 1520, 
he resigned, on being promoted to the same rank at Paris; 
He calls himself almoner to the king in the title of his rare 
book " Germani Brixii, gratulatoriae quatuor ad totidem 
viros classissimos, &c." Paris, 1531, 4 to. This contains 
also four letters to Erasmus, Jerome Vida, Sadolet, and 
Lazarus Bayf, with some Latin poetry addressed to Fran- 
cis I. on a marble statue of Venus, which the chevalier 
Reriz had presented to that sovereign. He published also 
an edition of Longolius's defences, " Christ. Longolii per- 
duellionis rei defensiones duae," 1520. Brixius died in 
1538. He was the familiar acquaintance of Rabelais, and 
long the correspondent of Erasmus, but what more parti- 
cularly entitles him to notice here, is his quarrel with sir 
Thomas More, on which some of the biographers of that 
illustrious character have been either silent, or superficial. 
Brixius in 1513 composed a poem called " Chordigera," 
where in three hundred hexameter verses, he described a 
battle fought that year by a French ship, la Cordeliere, 
and an English ship, the Regent. More, who was not 
then in the high station which he afterwards reached, com- 
posed several epigrams in derision of this poem. Brixius, 
piqued at this affront, revenged himself by the * r Anti- 
Morus," an elegy of about 400 verses, in which he se- 
verely censured all the faults which he thought he had. 
found in the poems of More. Yet he kept this piece of 
satire by him for some time, declaring, that if he should 
consent to the publication, it would be purely to comply 
with his friends, who remonstrated to him, that compo- 
sitions of this kind lost much of their bloom by coming out 
late. There are three editions of the Anti-Morus. The 
two first-are of Paris; one" published by himself, in 1520, 



31 B R I X I U S. 

the other in 1 560, in the second volume of the " Flore* 
Epigrammatum" of Leodegarius a Quercu, or Leger du 
Ch£ne. The third is in the " Corpus Poetarum Latino* 
rum" collected by Janus Gruterus, under the anagram* 
matic name of Ranutius Gerus. Erasmus says that More 
despised this poem so much as to have intended to print 
it ; Erasmus at the same time advised More to take no no* 
tice of it. The chancellor's great-grandson and biographer, 
More, seems to think that he had written something in 
answer to Brixius, before he received this advice from 
Erasmus, but called in the copies, " so that," says his 
biographer, " it is now very hard to be found ; though 
some have seen it of late." Much correspondence on the 
subject may be perused in our authorities. ' 
- BROAD, or BRODJEUS (Thomas), son of the rev. W. 
Broad, of Rendcombe, in Gloucestershire, was born in 
1677, and .educated at St. Mary's-hall, Oxford, which he 
entered in 1594, but soon after went to Alban-hall, where 
he took his degrees in arts. In 1-611, on the death of his 
father, he became rector of Rendcombe, where he was 
held in high esteem for piety and learning, and where he 
died, and was buried in the chancel of his church, in June, 
1635. He wrote: 1. a "Touchstone for a Christian,'* 
Lond. 1613, 12mo. 2. " The Christian's Warfare," ibid. 
1613, 12mo. 3. "Three questions on the Lord's Day, 
&c." Oxon. 1621, 4to. 4. " Tractatus de Sabbato, in 
quo doctrina ecclesiae primitive declarator ac defenditur," 
1627, 4to, and two treatises on the same subject, left in 
manuscript, and published, with an answer, by George 
Abbot (not the archbishop), as mentioned in his life. 8 

BROCARDUS (James), a man of a visionary turn, was 
a native of Venice, born in the beginning of the sixteenth 
century. He embraced the Protestant religion, and ex- 
pressed a great zeal against Popery. He published se- 
veral hooks in Holland, in which he maintained that the 
particular events of the sixteenth century had been fore- 
told by the prophets, and after he had applied scripture, 
as his fancy directed, to things that had already happened;. 
he took the liberty to apply it to future events. In this he 
succeeded so far as to persuade a French gentleman of 
noble extraction, and a Protestant, that a - Protestant 

i Moreri.— Jnrtin's Life of Erasmus.— *More* Life of sir T. More, p. 13.— 
Baitlet Jujremena des Savans. i 

• George Abbot, vol. I. p. 29, of this Dictionary.— Ath, Ox. vol. I. 



BRO.C'ARDUS. »1 

prince would quickly overthrow the Pope's kingdom, and 
make himself the head of all the united Christians. This 
gentleman, S£gur Pardaillan, was a faithful servant to the 
king of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. and thought heaven 
designed his master for the glorious enterprise which Bro- 
cardus ha*l foretold. Big with these hopes, he proposed 
to him to send an embassy to the Protestant princes, of- 
fering to be his ambassador ; and there being nothing in 
his proposal but what suited with the exigencies of the 
time, it was approved of, and he was actually deputed to 
those princes in 1583. 

The catholic writers have abused Brocardus as an im- 
postor, and a promoter of wars and insurrections ; but 
though he might have been the cause of disturbances, he 
does not appear to have been a knavish impostor. He 
seems to have been sincere, and to have believed what he 
taught. He retired to Nuremberg at the latter end of his 
life, where he met with persons who were very kind and 
charitable to him. " I hear," says Bongars in a letter to 
Camerarius, dated Feb. 3, 1591, " that your republic has 
kindly received the good old man J. Brocard, who in his 
youth appeared among the most polite and learned men.'/ 
He expresses the same affection for Brocard in another, 
dated July 24, 1593. " I am mightily pleased with the 
great affection you express for Brocard. He certainly 
deserves that some persons of such probity as yours should 
take care of him. As for me, I am hardly in a capacity to 
oblige him. I leave no stone unturned to procure him the 
payment of 300 gold crowns, which Mr. S£gar left him 
by his will." In another, of Nov. 16, 1594: "I cannot 
but even thank you for your kind and generous treatment 
of the poor, but good, old Brocard." He died soon after, 
but we do not find exactly when. 

Among the works he published, which were most of 
them printed at S£gur Pardaillan's expence, were his 
" Commentary on the Revelations of St John," and his 
" Mystical and prophetical explication of Leviticus." These 
both camp pot at Ley den, in 1580; as did some other 
things of inferior note the same year. The synods of the 
United Provinces were afraid that people would think they 
approved the extravagant notions advanced in them, if 
they were wholly silent about them; and therefore the 
national senate of Middleburg condemned, in 1581, that 
method of explaining the scripture j enjoining the divinity 

Vol. VIL D 



M 



34 BROCARDUS. 

professor at Leyden to speak to Brocard about his visions ;. 
and it has been said, that Brocard, not being . able to an- 
swer the objections raised against his mode of interpreting 
prophecies, promised to desist. ! 

BROCKES (Bartholomew Henry), a German lawyer 
and poet, was born at Lubeck, Sept. 22, 1680, and after 
having studied and taken his degrees in the civil and canon 
law, settled and practised at Hamburgh, where his merit 
Boon raised him to the senatorial digrtity, to which the 
emperor, without any solicitation, added the rank of Aulic 
counsellor, and count Palatine. These counts Palatine 
-were formerly governors of the imperial palaces* and bad. 
Considerable powers, being authorized to create public 
tiotaries, confer degrees, &c. Brockes published in five 
parts, from 1724 to 1T&6, 8vo, " Irdisches Vergnugen in 
<5ott, &c." or " Earthly Contentment in God," consisting- 
of philosophical and moral poems, which were mutjr 
praised by his countrymen. He also published translations 
from Marini, and other Italian poets, into German, and had 
tome thoughts of translating Milton, as he had done Pope's 
Essay on Man, a proof at least of bis taste for English 
poetry. His works form a collection of 9 vols. 8vo, and 
have been often reprinted. He appears to have carefully 
divided his time between his public duties and private 
studies, and died much esteemed and regretted, Jan. 16, 
1747.* 

BROCKLESBY (Richard), an eminent English physi- 
cian, the son of Richard Brocklesby, esq. of the city of 
Cork, by Mary Alloway, of Minehead, Somersetshire, was 
bom at Minehead, where his mother happened to be on a 
visit -to her parents, Aug. 11, 1722. There he remained 
until he was three years old, at which time he was carried 
to Ireland, and privately instructed for some years in his 
father's house at Cork, At a proper age he was sent to 
Bally tore school in the north of Ireland, at which Edmund 
Burke was educated, and although they were not exactly 
contemporaries, Dr. Brocklesby being seven years older, 
this circumstance led to a long end strict friendship. Hay- 
ing finished his classical education at Ballytore, with dili- 
gence and success, his father, intending him for a physi- 
cian, sent him to Edinburgh, where after continuing the 
usual time, he went to Leyden, and took his degree under 

' GrtL Diet. * Saxii Ooomast.— Republic of Litters, vol. VIII,— Dirt. Hilt. 



BROGKIESBY. 85 

the celebrated Gaubios, who corresponded with him fot 
several years afterwards. His diploma is dated June 28, 
1745, and the same year be published his thesis, " De 
Saliva sana et morbosa." 

On returning home he began practice in Broad-street, 
London ; and diligence, integrity, and (Economy, soon en- 
abled him to surmount the difficulties which a young phy- 
sician has to encounter, while his father assisted him witfy 
150/. a year, a liberal allowance at that time. In 1746, 
he published " An Essay concerning the mortality of the 
honied cattle:" and in April, 1751, was admitted a licen- 
tiate of the college of physicians. He had by this time 
risen into reputation ; and as his manners were naturally 
mild and conciliating, his knowledge well-founded, and 
Us talents soniewhat known as an author, he sooft became 
acquainted with the leading men in the profession — parti- 
cularly the celebrated Dr. Mead, Dr. Leatherland, Dr. 
Heberden, sir George Baker, &c. He added, another tes- 
timony to the fame of Dr. Mead, by always praising his 
skill, his learning, urbanity, &c. and amongst many other 
anecdotes of this extraordinary man, used to relate the 
circumstance of his giviug that celebrated impostor, Psal- 
manazar, an opportunity of eating nearly a pound of raw 
human flesh at his table, to prove that this was the constant 
food of the inhabitants of Formosa *• 

On the 28th of September 1754, he obtained an hono- 
rary degree from the university of Dublin, and was ad- 
mitted to Cambridge ad eundem the 16th of December fol- 
lowing. In virtue of this degree at Cambridge, he became 
a fellow of the college of London the 25th of June 1756 ; 
and, on the 7th of October 1758 (on the recommendation 
of Dr. Shaw, favoured by the patronage of the late lord 
Harrington), he was appointed physician to the army. la 
this capacity he attended in Germany the best part of 
what is called " the seven years 9 war," where he was soon 
distinguished by his knowledge, his zeal, and humanity; 
and particularly recommended himself to the notice of his 
grace the duke of Richmond, the late lord Pembroke, and 

* Amongst man? otter impositions one of the dissectiug surgeons of the 

of Psalmanazar, he related that the hospital from the posteriors of a man. 

inhabitants of Formosa constantly ate who had been hanged that morning, 

human flesh, of which he as frequently which he had served up at his table* 

partook, and which he called «* deli- and which Psalmanazar actually ate, 

^kftis eating." Dr. Mead, to try him, seemingly with a good liking, before a 

obtained a pound of human flesh of large ptrty selected for that purpose. 

D2 



** BROCKLESBI 

others, which with the former mellowed into a friendship, 
only terminated by the doctor's life. On the 2 7 tfr of Oc- 
tober 1760, be was appointed physician to, the hospitals 
for the British forces, and returned to England some time 
before the peace of 1763. 

On his return he settled in Norfolk-street, in the Strand, 
where he was considered as a physician of very extensive 
experience, particularly in all diseases incident to the 
army. His practice spread in proportion to his reputation ; 
.and, with his half-pay, and an estate of about six hundred 
pounds per year, which devolved on him by the death of 
his father, he was now enabled to live in a very handsome 
manner, and his table was frequently filled with some 
of the most distinguished persons for rank, learning, and 
abilities in the kingdom. In the course of his practice, 
his advice as well as his purse was ever accessible to the 
poor, as well as. to men of merit who stood in need; of 
either. Besides giving his advice to the poor of all descrip- 
tions, which he did with an active and unwearied benevo- 
lence, he had always upon his list two or three poor wi- 
dows, to whom he granted small annuities j and who, on 
the quarter day of receiving their stipends, always partook 
of the hospitalities of his table. To his relations who 
wanted his assistance in their business or professional- he 
was not only liberal, but so judicious in his liberalities as 
to supersede the necessity of a repetition of them. To his 
friend Dr. Johnson (when it was in agitation amongst his 
friends to procure an enlargement of his pension, the, tyet- 
tev to enable him to travel for the benefit of bis health}, he 
offered an establishment of one hundred pounds per year 
during his life '. and, upon doctor Johnson's declining it 
(which he did in the most affectionate terms of gratitude 
and friendship), he made him a second offer of apartments 
in his own house, for the more immediate benefit of medi- 
cal advice. To his old and intimate friend Edmund Burke, 
be had many years back bequeathed by will the sum of 
one thousand pounds; but recollecting that this event 
might take place (which it afterwards did) when such a le- 
gacy could be of no service to him, he, with that judicious 
liberality for which he was always distinguished, gave it to 
him in advance, " ut pignus amicitia ;" it was accepted as 
such by Mr. Burke, accompanied with a letter, which none 
but a man feeling the grandeur and purity of friendship 
like him, could dictate. 



BROCRLfcSBY. , 37. 

- Passing through a life thus honourably occupied in the 
liberal pursuits' of his profession, and in the confidence and 
friendship of some of the first characters of the age for 
rank or literary attainments, the doctor reached his 73d 
year ; and finding those infirmities, generally attached to 
that time of life, increase upon him, be gave up * good 
deal of the bustle of business, as well as bis half-pay* 
on being appointed, by his old friend and patron the duke 
of Richmond, physician general to tbe royal regiment of 
artillery and corps of engineers, March, 1794. This wat. 
- a situation exactly suited to his time of life and inclina- 
tions ; hence he employed his time in occasional trips to ' 
Woolwich, with visits to his friends and patients. In this 
last list be never forgot either the poor or those few friends 
whom he early attended as a medical man gratuitously. 
\ Scarcely any distance, or any other inconvenience, could 
~ repress this benevolent custom ; and when he heard by ac- 
cident that any of this latter description of his friends were 
ill, and had through delicacy abstained from sending for 
him, he used to say, somewhat peevishly, " Why am I 
treated thus ? Why was not I sent for ?" 

Though debilitated beyond his years, particularly for a 
man of his constant exercise and abstemious and regular 
manner of living, he kept up his acquaintance and friend- 
ships to tbe last, and in a degree partook of the pleasant- 
* ries and convivialities of the table. Tbe friends, who knew 
"• his habits* sometimes indulged him with a nap in his arm 
chair after dinner, which greatly refreshed him : he then 
would turn about to the company, and pay his club of the 
conversation, either by anecdote or observation, entirely 
free from the laws or severities of old age. 

In the beginning of December 1797, he set out on a 
visit to Mrs, Burke, .at Beaconsfield, the long frequented 
seat of friendship and hospitality, where the master spirit 
Of the age be lived in, as well as the master of that man- 
sion, had so often adorned, enlivened, and improved the. 
convivial hour. On proposing this journey, and under so 
infirm a state as he was in, it was hinted by a friend, whe- 
ther such a length of way, or the, lying ou( of his own bed, 
With other little circumstances, mighx not fatigue him too 
muchi be instantly caught the force of this suggestion, 
and with bis usual placidity replied, " My good friend, I 
perfectly understand your hint, and am thankful * to you 
for it j but where' s tbe difference whether I die at a frifend'i 



38 BROCKLESBY. 

house, at an inn, or in a post-chaise ? I hope I'm every 
way prepared for such an event, and perhaps it would, be 
as well to elude the expectation of it." He therefore be- 
gan his journey the next day, and arrived there the same 
evening, where he was cordially received by the amiable 
mistress of the mansion, as well as by doctors Lawrence 
and King, who happened to be there on a visit. He remained 
at Beaconsfield 'till the 11th of December, but recollect- 
ing that his learned nephew, Dr. Young, now foreign se- 
cretary to the royal society, was to return from Cambridge 
to London next day, he instantly set out for his house in 
town, where he ate his last dinner with his nearest friends 
and relations. About nine o'clock he desired to go to bed, 
but going up stairs fatigued him so much, that he was 
obliged to sit in his chair for some time before he felt him- 
self sufficiently at ease to be undressed. In a little time, 
however, he recovered himself; and, as they were unbut- 
toning his waistcoat, he said to his elder nephew, " What 
an idle piece of ceremony this buttoning and unbuttoning 
is to me now !" When he got to bed he seemed perfectly 
composed, but in about five minutes after, expired with- 
out a groan. 

He was interred Dec. 18, in the church-yard of St. Cle- 
ment Danes, in a private manner, according to his request. 
His fortune, amounting to near 30,000/. after a few lega- 
cies to friends and distant relations, was divided between 
his two nephews, Robert Beeby, esq. and Dr. Thomas 
Young. The preceding facts may be sufficient to illustrate 
Dr. Brocklesby's character. His future fame as a writer 
must rest on his publications, of which the following 
is, we believe, a correct list: 1. " Dissertatio Inaug, 
de Saliva Sana et Morbosa," Lug. Bat, 1745, 4to. 2. " An 
Essay concerning -the Mortality of the Horned Cattle," 
1746, 8vo. 3. " Eulogium Medicum, sive Oratio Anni- 
versaria Harveiana habita in Theatris Collegii Regalis Me- 
dicorum Londinensium, Die xviii Octobris," 1760, 4to. 
4. " (^Economical and Medical Observations from 1738 to 

1763, tending to the improvement of Medical Hospitals," 

1764, 8vo. 5. fi € An Account of the poisonous root lately 
found mixed with Gentian," Phil. Trans. N. 486. 6. " Case 
of a Lady labouring under a Diabetes," Med. Observ. No. 
III. 7. " Experiments relative to the Analysis and Vir- 
tues of Seltzer Water," ibid. vol. IV. 8. " Case of an 
Encysted Tumour in the Orbit of the Eye, cured by 
Messrs. Bromfield and Ingram," ibid, 9, " A -Disserts 



BROCKLESBY. 39 

tion on the Music of die Antients." We do not know the 
date of this last article, but believe it to be amongst his 
early literary amusements. When Dr. Young was at Ley- 
den, a professor, understanding he was a nephew- of Dr. 
Brocklesby's, shewed him a translation of it in the Ger- 
man language. l 

BRODEAU (John), in Latin BnoDJEUS,an eminent cri- 
tic, on whom Lipsius, Scaliger, Grotius, and all the learned 
of his age, have bestowed high encomiums, was descended 
from a noble family in France, and born at Tours in 1500. 
He was liberally educated, and placed under Alciat to 
study the civil law ; but, soon forsaking that, he gave him* 
self up wholly to languages and the belles-lettres. He 
travelled into Italy, where he became acquainted with Sa- 
dolet, Bembus, and other eminent characters; and here 
he applied himself to the study of philosophy, mathema- 
tics, and the sacred languages, in which he made no small 
proficiency. Then returning to his own country, he led a 
retired but not an idle life ; as his many learned lucubrations 
abundantly testify. He was a man free from all ambition 
and vain-glory, and suffered his works to be published 
rather under the sanction and authority of others, than 
under his own : a singular example, says Thuanus, of mo- 
desty in this age, when men seek glory not only from 
riches and honours, but even from letters ; and that too 
with a vanity which disgraces them. He died in 1563, at 
Tours, where he was a canon of St. Martin. His principal 
works are, 1. his " Miscellanea, a collection of criticisms 
and remarks, the first six books of which are published in 
Gruter's " Lampas, seu fax artium," vol. II. and the four 
latter in vol. IV. 2. " Annotationes in Oppianum, Q. Ca- 
Jabrum, et Coluthum," Basil, 1552, 8vo. 3. " Note in 
Martialem*" ibid. 16 19, 8vo. 4. " Annot. in Xenophon- 
teto, Gr. et Lat," ibid. 1559," fol. 5. " Epigrammata Graeca 
cum Annot. Brodaei et H. Steph." Francfort, 1600, fol. 
Many of these epigrams were translated into Latin by Dr. 
Johnson, and are printed with his works. * 

BROECKHUSIUS (John), or John Broeckhuizen, a 
distinguished scholar in Holland, was born Nov. 20, 1649, 
at Amsterdam, where bis father was a . clerk in th$ ad- 
miralty. He learned the, Latin tongue under Hadrian Ju- 

1 From a life in the European Magazine, 1798.— Boswell'a Life of Johnson. 
--Gent. Mag. vol. LKVII. 

* Gen. Diet. — Moreri.— Baillet Jugemeas des Sayang.— Saxii Onomast— 
BJooat's Centura. 



40 BROECK.HU8IU& 

nius, and made a prodigious progress in polite literature ; 
but bis father dying when be was very young, he was 
taken from literary pursuits, and placed with an apothecary 
at Amsterdam, with whom be lived some years. Not liking 
this, he went into the army, where his behaviour raised 
him to the rank of lieutenant-captain ; and, in 1674, wa* 
sent with his regiment to America in the fleet under ad- 
miral de Ruyter, but returned to Holland the same year. 
In 1678 he was sent to the garrison at Utrecht, where he 
contracted a friendship with the celebrated Grsevius ; and 
here, though a person of an excellent temper, he had the 
misfortune to be so deeply-engaged in a duel, that, ac- 
cording to the laws of Holland, his life was forfeited : but 
Grsevius wrote immediately to Nicholas Heinsius* who ob- 
tained his pardon from the stadtholder. Not long after, 
he became a captain of one of the companies then at Am- 
sterdam ; which post placed him in an easy situation, and 
gave him leisure to pursue his studies. His company 
being disbanded in 1697, a pension was granted him; 
upon which he retired to a country-house near Amsterdam, 
where he saw -but little company, and spent his time among 
his books. He died Dec. 15, 1707, and was interred at 
Amsterween, hear Amsterdam ; a •mouument was after- 
wards erected to his memory, with-an inscription, the let- 
ters of which are arranged so as to form the date of the 
year, which we presume was considered as a great effort of 
genius : 

prlnCeps poetarVM DeCessIt. 

His works are, 1. his " Carolina," Utrecht, 1684, l2mo, 
and afterwards more splendidly by Hoogstraatert, at Amst. 
171 1, 4to, under the title of " Jani Broukhusii poematum 
libri sedecim." 2. " Actii Sinceri Sannazarii, &c. Opera 
Latina ; aceedu'nt notoe, &c." Amst. 1680, 12mo, without 
his name, which was added to the best edition, Amst. 1727. 
3. "Aonii Palearii Verulani opera," ibid, 1696,3vo, without 
his name, and by some mistaken for one of Gravius's edi- 
tions. 4. " S. Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum libri IV." ibid. 
1702, 4to; ibid. 1727, 4to. 5. " Albii Tibulli qu« extant, 
&o." ibid. 1708, 4to. His u Dutch poems 4 ' were pub- 
lished by Hoogstraaten, -Amst. 1712, 8vo, with the au- 
thor's life. Modern pritics seem agreed in the value of his 
editions of the classics, although he has been sometimes 
censured for bold freedom's. 1 

• Gen. Diet— Moreri,— Sa*ii Onomart,— Dibdiu'i Classics m Tibmll. **d 



B R O K E S B Y. 41 

BROKES. See BROOKES. 

BROKESBY (Francis), was born at Stoke Golding, in 
Leicestershire, Sept. 29, 1637, and educated at Trinity 
college, Cambridge, and was afterwards rector of Rowley, 
in the East riding of Yorkshire. He wrote a " Life of 
Jesus Christ ;" and was a principal assistant to Mr. Nelsou 
in compiling his " Feasts and Fasts of the Church of Eng- 
land." He was also author of " An History of the govern- 
ment of the primitive Church, for the three first centuries, 
and the beginning of the fourth," printed by W. B. 1712, 
- fcvo. In a dedication to. Mr. Francis Cherry, dated Shot- 
tesbroke, Aug. 13, 1711, the author says, "The following 
treatise challenges you for its patron, an^ demands its 
dedication to yourself, in that I wrote it under your roof, 
was encouraged in my studies by that respectful treatment 
I there found, and still meet with ; and withal, as I was 
assisted in my work by your readiness to supply me, out 
of your well-replenished library, with such books as I 
stood in need of in collecting this history. I esteem my- 
"self, therefore, in gratitude obliged to make this public 
acknowledgement of your favours, and to tell the world, 
that when I was by God's good providence reduced to 
straits (in part occasioned by my care lest I should make 
shipwreck of a good conscience), I then found a safe re- 
treat and kind reception in your family, and there both 
Jeisure and encouragement to write this, following treatise. 1 * 
As Mr. Brbkesby's straits arose from his principles a« a 
nonjuror, he was, of course, patronised by the most emi- 
nent persons of that persuasion. The house of the be- 
nevolent Mr. Cherry, however, was his asylum ; and there 
he formed an intimacy with Mr. Dodwell, whose " Life'* 
he afterwards wrote, and with Mr. Nelson, to whom the 
Life of Dodwell is dedicated. He died suddenly soon after 
that publication, in 1715. Mr. Brokesby was intimately 
acquainted with the famous Oxford antiquary, Hearne, 
wha printed -a valuable letter of his in the first volume of 
.'Leland's Itinerary ; and was said to be the author of a tract, 
entitled " Of Education, with respect to grammar-schools 
and universities,'* 1710, 8vo. * 

BROM (Adam de), almoner to king Edward II. is. al- 
lowed to have shafted the honour of founding Oriel college, 
Oxford, with that monarch. The only accounts we have' 
of De Brom state, that he was rector of Hanworth in Mid- 



» Nichols's Hitt. of Hmckloj, and Hist, of Leieeftewhire, where U Mr. Brokef- 
is diary, Jtc. 



42 B ROM. 

dlesex, in 1313; the year following, chancellor of the dio» 
cese of Durham; in 1319, archdeacon of Stow; and a 
few months after was prompted to the living of St. Mary, 
Oxford. In 1324 he requested of his sovereign to be em- 
powered to purchase a. messuage in Oxford, where he 
might found, to the honour of the Virgin Mary, a college 
of scholars, governed by a rector of their own choosing, 
^ sub nomine Rectoris Domus Scholarium Beat® Marias.'* 
With this the king readily complied, and De Brom im- 
mediately commenced his undertaking by purchasing a 
tenement in St. Mary's parish ; and, by virtue of the char- 
ter granted by the king, dated 1324, founded a college of 
scholars for the study of divinity and logic. He then 
resigned the whole into the hands of the king, of whose 
liberality he appears to have made a just estimate, and 
from whose power he expected advantages to the society, 
which he was himself incapable of conferring. Nor was he 
disappointed in the issue of this well-timed policy. The 
ling took the college under his own care, and the next 
year granted a new charter, appointing it to be a college 
for divinity and the canort-law, to be governed by a pro- 
<vost, and for their better maintenance, besides some tene- 
ments in St. Mary's parish, he gave them the advowson of 
St. Mary's church, &c. Adam de Brom, who was de- 
servedly appointed the first provost, drew up a body of 
statutes in 1326, and gave his college the church of Aber- 
ibrth in Yorkshire; and in 1327, Edward. III. bestowed 
upon them a large messuage, situated partly in the parish 
-of St. John Baptist, called La Oriole, to which the scholars 
soon removed, and from which the college took its name. 
De Brom procured other advantages for the college, the 
last of which was the .advowson of Coleby in Lincolnshire. 
He died June 16, 1332, and was buried in St. Mary's 
church, in a chapel still called after his name. It is said 
to have been built by bim, and his tomb, no>v decayed, 
was visible in Antony Wood's time. In this chapel the 
heads of houses assemble on Sundays, &c. previous t» 
«their taking their seats in the church. 1 

BROME (Alexander), an English poet, has the re- 
putation of ably assisting the royal party in the time of 
Charles I. and of even having no inconsiderable hand in 
promoting the restoration. Of his personal history, we 

• 

* Chalmers's History of Oxford. 



JB R O M E. *S 

fcave only a few notices in the Biographia Dramatics He 
was born in 1620, and died June 30, 1666. He was an 
attorney in the lord mayor's court, and through the whole 
of the protectorship, maintained his loyalty, and cheered 
his party by the songs and poems in his printed works, 
most of which must have been sung, if not composed, at 
much personal risk. How far they are calculated to excite 
resentment, or to promote the cause which the author 
espoused, the reader must judge. His songs are in mea~ 
sures > varied with considerable ease and harmony, and have 
many sprightly turns, and satirical strokes, which the 
Roundheads must have felt. Baker informs us that he 
was the author of much the greater part of those songs and 
epigrams which were published against the rump. Phillips 
styles him the " English Anacreon."' Walton has drawn a 
very favourable character of him in the eclogue prefixed to 
his works, the only one of the commendatory poems which 
seems worthy of a republication. Mr. Ellis enumerates 
three editions of these poems, the first in 1 660, the second 
in 1664, amkthe third in 1668. That, however, uped ia 
the late edition of the English Poets is dated 1661. In 
1660 be published " A Congratulatory Poem on the mira* 
culous and glorious Return of Charles 11." which we have 
not seen. Besides these poems he published a " Transla- 
tion of Horace,*' by himself, Fanshaw, Holliday, Hawkins f 
Cowley, Ben Jonson, &c. apd had once an intention to 
translate Lucretius. In 1654 he published a comedy en* 
titled "The Cunning Lovers," which was acted in 1651 
at the private house in Drury Lane. He was also editor of 
the plays of Richard Brome, who, however, is not men* 
tioned as being related to him. l 

BROME (Richard) lived also in the reign of Charles L 
and was contemporary with Decker, Ford, Shirley, &c. 
His extraction was mean ; for be was originally no better 
than a menial servant of Ben Jonson. He wrote himself, 
however, into high repute ; and is addressed in some lines 
by his quondam master, on account of his comedy called 
tfie " Northern Lass." His genius was entirely turned to 
comedy, and we have fifteen of his productions in this way 
remaining. They were acted in their day with great up* 

plause, and have been often revived since. Even in our 

• ■ * 

1 English Poets, Edit. 21 vols. 1810.— Biog. Dram.— Kennctt's Register, p. 
91$.— JJUis's SpeciaaeBS, vol. 111. 



V 



44 BKOME. 

dwn time, one of them, caHed the u Jotfial Crew/ 1 has, 
With little alteration, been revived, and exhibited at Co- 
Vent- garden with great and repeated success. He died in 
1652. » > 

BROMFIELD (Sir William), an eminent English sur- 
geon, Was born in .London, in 1712, and studied surgery^ 
under the celebrated Ranby, . by whose instructions he was 
soon enabled to practise on his own account. In 1741, he 
began to give lectures on anatomy and surgery, and soon 
found his theatre crowded with pupils. Some years after, 
in conjunction with the rev. Mr. Madan, be formed the 
plan of the Lock hospital, into which patients were first 
received Jan. 3, 1747, and was made first surgeon to that 
establishment, an office he filled with advantage to the 
patients and credit to himself for many years. With a 
view of contributing to its success, he altered an old 
comedy, "The City Match," written in 1639, by Jaspar 
Maine, and procured it to be acted at Drury-lane theatre, 
in 1755, for the benefit of the hospital. He was also, vejy 
early after its being instituted, elected one ofc the surgeons 
to St George's hospital. In 1761, he was appointed in 
the suite of the noble persons, who were sent to brings 
over the princess of Mecklenburgb, our present queen, 
and was soon after appointed surgeon to her majesty's 
household. In 1751, he-sent to the royal society a case of 
a woman who had a foetus in her abdomen nine years, 
which is printed in their Transactions for. the same .year. 
In 1157, he published an account • of the English night 
shades, the internal use of which had been recommended 
in scrophulous Gases ; but they had failed in -producing die 
expected benefit with him. In 1759, be gave " A Narra- 
tive of a Physical Transaction with Mr.Aylet, surgeon, at 
Windsor." This is a controversial piece of no conse- 
quence now, but the author clears himself from the impu- 
tation of having treated his antagonist improperly. In 
1767, he published " Thoughts concerning the present 
peculiar method of treating persons inoculated, for the 
Small-pox." This relates to the Suttons, who were now 
in the zenith of their reputation. He thinks their, prac- 
tice of exposing their patients to the open air in th^ inidst 
of winter, of repelling the efuption, and checking or pre-* 
venting the suppurative process, too bold, and hazardous, 

1 Biog . Dramatica.— Winsta*l*y and Jacob. 



BROMFIELD. 

* • • -. r •» 

On the whole, however, he acknowledges, they were de- 
serving of commendation, for the improvements they h^4 
introduced, in the treatment, both of the. inoculated ai>d 
natural small-pox. His next work, the moat considerable 
one written by him^ was " Chirurgical Cases and Observa- 
tions/' published in 17X3, in 2 vols. 8vo. Though there 
are much judicious practice, and many valuable observa- 
tions contained in these volumes, yet they did not answer 
the expectations of the public, or correspond to the fame 
and credit the author had obtained : accordingly in the 
following year they were attacked by an anonymous writer, 
said to be Mr. Justamond, in a- pamphlet, entitled " l^otes 
on Chirurgical Cases and Observations, by a Professor of 
Surgery/' The strictures contained in these. notes are 
keen and ingenious, and, though evidently the produce of 
ill-humour, yet seem to have had the effect of preventing 
so general a diffusion of the cases, as the character of the 
'author would otherwise have procured them. They have 
; never "been reprinted. About this time the author took a 
spacious mansion in Chelsea park, which he enlarged, 
altered, And furnished in an elegant style. Hither he; re- 
tired, after doing his business, which he began gradually 
to cor/tract into a narrower circle. With that view, a few 

{ears after, he gave up his situation as surgeon to the Lock 
ospital. His other appointments he kept to the. time of 
his death, which happened on the 24th of November, 1792, 
in the 80th' year of his age. l 

BROMLEY (John), an English clergyman, was a native 
of Shropshire, but where educated is not known. In the 
beginning of king James IL's reign he was curate pf St. 
Giles's in the Fields* London, but afteiwa^ds turned Ho* 
man catholic, and was employed a& a corrector of the press 
in the king'sf printing-house, which afforded him a, com- 
fortable subsistence. When obliged to quit that, after ..^he 
revolution, he undertook a boarding-school for the instruc- 
tion of young gentlemen, some of whoin being the sons, of 

' opulent persons, this employment proved very beneficial* 
His biographer informs us that Pope, the celebrated j>oet f 
was one of his pupils. He afterwards travelled abroad with 
some young gentlemen, as tutor, but retired at last to his 

4 own country, where he died Jan. 10, 1717. He published 

1 &tes'i CycWpadi*. 



40 B'ROMLET. 

only a translation of the " Catechism of the Council df 
Trent," Land. 1687, 8V0. 1 

BROMPTON (John) was a Cistercian monk, and abbot 
of Jorevall, or Jerevall, in Richmondshire. The " Chronic- 
con* 9 that goes under his name begins at the year 588,* 
when Augustin the monk came into England, and is car- 
ried on to the death of king Richard I. anno domini 1198. 
This chronicle, Selden says, does not belong to the person 
whose name it goes under, and that John Brompton the 
abbot did only procure it for his monastery of Jorevall. 
But whoever was the author, it is certain he lived after the 
beginning of the reign of Edward III. as appears by his di- 
gressive relation of the contract between Joan, king Ed- 
ward's sister, and David, afterwards king of Scots. This 
historian has borrowed pretty freely from Hoveden. His 
chronicle is printed in the u Decern Script Hist. Angliae," 
Lond-1652, fol.* 

BRONCHORST (John), of Nimeguen, where he was 
born in 1494, and therefore sometimes called NoviOMAGUg, 
was an eminent mathematician of the sixteenth century, 
and rector of the school of Daventer, and afterwards pro* 
fessor of mathematics at Rostock. He died at Cologne ire 
1570. Saxius says that he was first of Rostock, then of 
Cologne, and lastly of Daventer, which appears to be pro- 
bable from the dates of his writings. He wrote, 1. " Scho- 
lia in Dialecticam Georgii Trapezuntii," Cologne and 
Leyden, 1537, 8vo. 2. " Arithmetica," ibid, and Paris,* 
1539. 3. " De Astrolabii compositione," Cologne, 1533, 
8vo. 4. a Urbis Pictaviensis (Poitiers) tumultus, ejusque 
Restitutio," an elegiac poem, Pictav. 1562, 4to. . 5. "Ven, 
Beds de sex mundi eetatibus," with scholia, and a conti- 
nuation to the 26th of Charles V. Cologne, 1537. He also 
translated from the Greek, Ptolomy's Geography. * 

BRONCHORST (Everard), son of the preceding, 
was born at Daventer in 1554, and became one of the most 
celebrated lawyers in the Netherlands. He studied at Co- 
logne, Erfurt, Marpurg, Wittemberg, and Basil, at which 
last place he took his doctor's degree in 1579. He after- 
wards taught law at Wittemberg for a year, and at Erfurt' 
for two years, and returned then to his own country, where 

1 Dodd's Church Hfct. vol.. III. 

* Selden in vitis X. Script — Tanner.— -Nicolson , s English Hist. Library. 

* Moreri.— Foppen.— «Saxii Onemast. 



BRONCHORST. 4? 

■ 

ke was appointed burgomaster of Daventer in 1586, and 
the year following professor at Leyden, Where he died 
May 27, 1627. His principal works were : 1. " Centura 
et conciliationes earundem con troversiarura juris, Cent. II.* 9 
1621. 2. " Methodus Feudorum," Leyden, 8vo. 3. 
u Aphorismi politici," first collected by Lambert Danaeusj 
and enlarged by Bronchorst, probably a good book, as it 
was prohibited at Rome in 1646. 1 

BRONZERIO (John-Jerom), an Italian physician, was 
born of wealthy parents, in Abadia, near Rovigo, in the 
Venetian territory, in 1577. After making great progress 
in the study of the belles lettres, philosophy, and astro- 
nomy, he was sent to Padua, where he was initiated into 
the knowledge of medicine and anatomy, and in 1597, was 
made doctor. He now went to Venice, where he practised 
medicine to the time of his death, in 1630. His publica- 
tions are, " De inn a to calido, et natural i spiritu, in quo 
pro veritate rei Galeni doctrina defenditur," 1626, 4to; 
" Disputatio de Principatu Hepatis ex Anatome Lampe- 
trae," Patav. 4to. Though from dissecting the liver of this 
animal he was satisfied the blood did not acquire its red 
colour there, yet he did not choose to oppose the doctrine 
of Galen. His observation, however, was probably not 
lost, but led the way to a more complete discovery of the 
fact, by subsequent anatomists. He published also, " De 
Principio Effectivo Semini insito." * 

BRONZINO. SeeALLORI. 

BROOKE (Frances), whose maiden name was Moore, 
was the daughter of a clergyman, and the wife of the rev. 
John Brooke, rector of Colney in Norfolk, of St. Augus- 
tine in the city of Norwich, and chaplain to the garrison of 
Quebec. She was as remarkable for her gentleness and 
suavity of manners as for her literary talents. Her hus- 
band died on the 21st of January 1789, and she herself 
expired on the 26th of the same month, at Sleaford, where 
she had retired to the house of her son, now rector of 
Folkingham in Lincolnshire. Her disorder was a spas* 
modic complaint. The first literary performance we know; 
of her writing was the " Old Maid," a periodical- work, 
begun November 15, 1755, and continued every Saturday 
until about the end of July 1756. These papers have 

1 Moreri.— rFoppen. — Freheri.— lilust Academiae Leid. 1614, 4to # p. 89.— 
Saxii Onomast. 
• Alureri Haller Bibl. Med.—Freberi Theatrum. 



4S BROOK E. 

since been collected into one volume 12 mo. In the same 
year (1756) she published " Virginia," a tragedy, with 
odes, pastorals, and translations, 8vo. In the preface to 
this publication she assigns as a reason for its appearance, 
" that she was precluded from all hopes of ever seeing the 
tragedy brought upon the stage, by there having been two 
so lately on the same subject." — " If hers," she adds, 
" should be found to have any greater resemblance to the 
two represented, than the sameness of the story made un- 
avoidable, of which she is not conscious, it must have been 
accidental on her side, as there are many persons of very 
distinguished rank and unquestionable veracity, who saw 
hers in manuscript before the others appeared, and will 
witness for her, that she has taken no advantage of having 
seen them. She must here do Mr. Crisp the justice to 
say, that any resemblance ipust have been equally acci- 
dental on his part, as he neither did, nor could see her 
Virginia before his own was played ; Mr. Garrick having 
declined reading hers till Mr. Crisp's was published." Pre- 
fixed to this publication were proposals for printing by 
subscription a poetical translation, with notes, of il Pastor 
Fido, a work which probably was never completed. 

In 1763 she published a novel, entitled, "The History 
of Lady Julia Mandeville," concerning the plan of which 
there were various opinions, though of the execution there 
seems to have been but one. It was read with much 
avidity and general approbation. . It has been often, how- 
ever, wished that the catastrophe had been less melan- 
choly ; and of the propriety of this opinion the authoress 
herself is said to have been satisfied, but did not choose to 
make the alteration. In ' the same year she published 
" Letters from Juliet lady Catesby to her friend lady Hen- 
rietta Campley," translated from the French, 12mo. She 
soon afterwards went to Canada with her husband, who 
was chaplain to the garrison at Quebec ; and there saw 
those romantic scenes so admirably painted in her next 
work, entitled, " The History of Emily Montagu," 1769, 
.4 vols. 12mo. The next year she published " Memoirs of 
the Marquis of St. Forlaix," in 4 vols. 12mo. On her re- 
turn to England accident brought her acquainted with Mrs. 
Yates, and an intimacy was formed between them which 
lasted as long as that lady lived ; and when she died, Mrs.' 
Brooke did honour to her memory by a eulogium printed 
in the Gentleman's Magazine. If we are not mistaken, 



BROOKE. 4? 

Mrs. Broofee bad with Mrs. Yates for a tim£ some share ia 
the opera-house. She certainly had some share of the 
libellous abuse which the management of that theatre du- 
ring the above period gave birth to. We have already 
seen that her first play had been refused oy Mr. Garrick. 
After the lapse of several years she was willing once more 
to try her fortune at the theatre, and probably relying ou 
the influence of Mrs. Yates to obtain its representation, 
produced a tragedy which had not the good .fortune to 
please the manager. He therefore rejected it; and by 
that means excited the resentment of the autheress so 
much that she took a severe revenge on him in a novel 
published in 1777, entitled the " Excursion,'' in 2 vols* 
12mo. It is not certainly known whether this rejected 
tragedy is or is not the same as was afterwards acted at 
Covent-garden. If it was, it will furnish no impeachment 
of Mr. Garrick's judgment It ought, however, to bar 
added, that our authoress, as is said, thought her invec* 
tire too severe ; lamented and retracted it. In 177.1 she 
translated "Elements of the History of England, from: 
the invasion of the Roman* (to the reign of George IL 
from the abb6 MiUot,' ' in 4 vols. 1 2 mo. In January 1781, 
the " Siege of Sinope," a tragedy, was acted at Covent- 
garden. This piece added but little to her reputation, 
though the principal characters were well supported by 
Mr. Henderson and Mrs. Yates* It went nine nights, but 
never became popular *, it wanted energy, and bad not 
much originality; there was little to disapprove, but no- 
thing to admire. Her next and most popular performance 
#as " Rosina," acted at Covent-garden in December 1782* 
This she presented to Mr. Harris, and few pieces have 
been equally successful. The simplicity of the story, the 
elegance of the words, and the excellence of the music, 
promise a long duration tp this drama. Her concluding 
work, was " Marian," acted 1788 at Covent-garden witto 
some success, but very much inferior to Rosina. 1 

BROOKE (Hskky), an amiable and ingenious writer, 
was a native of Ireland, where he was born in the year 1706. 
His father, the rev. William Brooke of Rantavan, rector 
of the parishes of Killinkare, Mullough, Mybullougb, and 
ticowie, is said to have been a man of great talents and 

1 From our latt edition.— Gent Mag, vol, LIX.— Biog. Pram*— KicboU's 
life of Bowyer* 

Vow, VIL E 



90 BROOKE. 

worth J his mother's name was Digby. His education ap- 
pears to have been precipitated in a manner not very usual £ 
after being for .some time the pupil of Dr. Sheridan, he 
was sent to Trinity college, Dublin, and from thence re- 
moved, when only seventeen years old, to study law in 
the Temple. Dr. Sheridan was probably # the means of 
his being introduced in London to Swift and Pope, who 
regarded him as a young man of very promising talents. 
How long he remained in London we are not told ; but on 
his return to Ireland he practised for some time as a cham- 
ber counsel, when an incident occurred which interrupted 
his more regular pursuits, and prematurely involved him 
in the cares of a. family. An aunt, who died at Westmgatli 
about the time of his arrival in Ireland, committed to him 
the guardianship of her daughter, a lively and beautiful 
girl between eleven and twelve years old. Brooke, pleased 
with the trust, conducted her to Dublin, and placed her 
at a boarding-school, where, during his frequent visits/ fie 
gradually changed the guardian for the lover, and at length 
prevailed on her to consent to a private marriage. In the 
life prefixed to his works, this is said to have taken place 
before she had reached her fourteenth year : another ac- 
count, which it is neither easy nor pleasant to believe, 
informs us that she was a mother before she had completed 
that year. When the marriage was discovered, the cere- 
mony was again performed in the presence of his family. 
For some time this happy pair had no cares but to please 
each other, and it was not until after the birth of their 
third child that Brooke could be induced to think seriously 
how such a family was to be provided for. The law had 
long been given up, and he had little inclination to re- 
sume a profession which excluded so many of the pleasures 
of imagination, and appeared inconsistent with the feelings 
pf a mind tender, benevolent, and somewhat romantic. 
Another journey to London, however, promised the ad-* 
vantages of literary society, and the execution of literary 
schemes by which he might indulge his genius, and be 
rewarded by fame and wealth. Accordingly, soon after 
his arrival, he renewed his acquaintance with his former 
friends, and published his philosophical poem, entitled 
^ Universal Beauty." This had been submitted to Pope, 
who, probably, contributed his assistance, and whose man- 
Iter at least is certainly followed. At what time this oc- 
fcurrfcd is uncertain* The second part was published U 



fc It 6 K £. *i 

1735, and the remainder about a year after. What faro* 
pr advantage he derived from it we know not, as no men- 
tion is made of him in the extensive correspondence of 
Pope or Swift. He was, however, obliged to return to 
Ireland, wher^ for a short time he resumed his legal pro- 
fession. 

■ In 1737 he went a third time to London, where he waft 
introduced to Lyttelton and others, the political and lite- 
rary adherents of the prince of Wales, "who," it is said, 
-** caressed him with uncommon familiarity, and presented 
him with many elegant and valuable tokens of his friend- 
ship.'* . Amidst such society, he had every thing to point 
bis ambition to fame and independence, and readily caught 

: that fervour of patriotic enthusiasm which was the bond of 
union and the ground of hope in the prince's court. 

'In 1738 he published a translation 'of the First; Three 
Books of Tasso, of which it is sufficient praise that Hoole 
says : u It i? at once so harmonious and so spirited', that I 
think an entire translation of IVsso by him would, not only % 
have rendered my task unnecessary,^ but have, discouraged 
those from the attempt whose poetical abilities ate much 

' superior to.mine." He Was* however, diverted from com- 
pleting his translation, by his political friends, who, among 
other plans of hostility against the minister of the day, en- 
deavoured' to turn all the weapons of literature against 
him. Their prose writers were ilumerdiis, but principally 
essayists and pamphleteers: from their 'pbets they had 
greater expectations ; Taul Whitehead wrote satires ; 
Fielding, comedies and farces ; Glover., an epic poem ; 
and now Brooke was encouraged to introduce Walpole in 
a tragedy » This was eritMed " G'ustavus Vasa, the de* 
liverer of his country," and was accepted by Drufy*lane 

1 theatre, and almost quite ready for performance, when an 
order came from the lord chamberlain to prohibit it. That 
it contains a considerable portion of p&rty- spirit cannot be 
denied, and the character of Trollio, the Swedish minister, 

*- however unjustly, was certainly intended for sir Robert 

"Walpole; but it may be doubted whether this minister 
gained much by prohibiting the acting of a play which he 

. aad hot the courage to suppress when published, and when 
the sentiments, considered deliberately in the closet, might 

* be hearty as injurious as when delivered by a mouthing 
actor. The press, however, remained open, ahdthepro- 

kib\tion having excited an uncommon degree of curiosity, 

■•*.• « _ . - • 

R 2 



j i 



the f.u%>r was jptire ricbjv r<ejeai;de4 than he c&uld 4we 
been, by the profit? of the f t$ge. Aboyje a thousand copied 
were subscribed for at £ve schillings e$cb, and jby the fiate 
of the subsequent edition, flhe autb.qr is ftdd to have 
cleaned .nearly a thousand p^p^s. T&p editor of the 
Biographia Dramatica says that it was acted in 1742, with 
some ^ltei^t ipns, on tlje Jri$b stfg$, fcy the titje pf " The 
Patriot." Dr. J#bnSPP> wfeq # $b*s tip^e r*fikfc£ among 
the discontented* wrpte p. very jpgenioujs ^iric^l p?«n~ 
pblet in favour of $be ^udftofr entitled " A pontpiete vin- 
dication o/ t^e Licensers of the Stage frpm *be m?4ick>u* 
and scandalous -fspe^ons pf lyir, grppkp, Wfctbof of <Jus- 
tav.usVasa," 1739, Uo. 

The fame Brooke $tcq.uire4 by this pky, iphicb baa cert 
tainly m^any beauties, seeded the earnest pf a prospieroti* 
career, >aud a? fee thought be could now afford to wait the 
&k>w progress of eyentSj fee l^ir^e4 * bpuse at Twickenham* 
near to Pope'*, furjusb^J ?£ <gejatoelly, $nd s$njt for M«3- 
Brooke and his family, $ut tl}$s£ pattering prwpepte #era 
soon clouded. He was seized witljL ap .agpe 90 violent *&d 
obstinate that hfs physicians, after having almost 4«#pw*eti 
of bis life, advise^ hin), 9s $ lasi fle^oprce, £9 $ry hi? ftativ* 
air. Wi& this be cpippfted, *#4 <obt&jfle4 ft fK*fcpl#* re- 
covery. It was thep . expected tha$ h$ should r&turu to 
London, and such wa? certainly bjs .int£otioq> but to the 
surprise of hi? friends, fre determined tp remain in Ireland* 
jFor a conduct 50 $ppprently inconsistent not pnly wijtb hi* 
interest, but his inclination, be was Ions; unwilling to ac T 
count. If, appeared afterward?, that Mr*. Brooke wa# 
alarmed flfc the zeaJ with wbjch he espoused the cause of 
the opposition ajyj dr^ded tb$ cpns5qu$fyc£s wWh wtoiicki 
bis pext intenjpgr^fcte pubjic^tipi) might be followed. Sh* 
persuaded bjin t^ece/foi^ to r-ejpain in Irejaqd, %nd for w> 
singular p, measure *t tfcts favourable crisis, in hj# history, 
be could assign gp adequate ye&sQft «vi*fefeut exposing bar 
to the iiBputat'19^ f of cagrfcfi, afyd \»m§\( *Q jthtf of a too 
yielding tamper. 

During his residence in Ire)ai*d, be kept up a literary 
corresppn4ei?f?e frith his Lpn4pa frjte&ds, but ail their let- 
f^l wepe con^fpqd by an a^pcMle.n^i fire. Two frpnj Pope, 
f?e are told, are particularly \g h§ ^epted, ^ in one of 
these he professed hio)seif in heart a protectant, but apo- 
logized fpr not publicly cjonfprming, by alleging that it 
wpul4 ^p4«r ^ ^ve of his fltytftor'* life unhappy, Pope'a 




BK09SE 5 J 

• 

filial rfffmicmf is? fife iftdfc* amiable ftjtoi&ff fol Ms* ahai-acter ; 
but this stofy of his d*clirtitog ttf confcrrt feete^H^ it wfcultf 
gitfe utasasiness to his flMth**, &Us to the gtotad' wfteii 
the reader is told tttat kis nether hfe* befcto <teatf. six or 
seven yea«* before' Brook*: w«ttt to frildftd: In* anther 
letter, tier is> &ldy wilEh m&ra'appe*ra<tae of tlrtfth,. td hav« 
tfdvised' Btiofeke to talk* <frck*s; * as* being a* profession 
better suited to his principles, his disposition, and* his ge- 
*ta&, tlfcfci that? of the Ww, and afeo ties* injuribtts tki his 
healths Why h* ctid ito* comply wMtf this afdvhte cannot 
iwtfv be krt&ww; btwl, bdlkmthffe'time*' lie- appears- to hav£ 
teen of a- religions* tarty 4lt*iough * is no* <*a3y to rt&on- 
<$ile his*]M*nbiptog; w%teli>w*¥e tho^ of tihe ^tridt^t kind, 
Wlth< lite OHftioual 1 atobition to shine a* a draddatib writer. 

Hor sothe yisairW afte* his arrival' in Ireland!, little is 
known oft his life, *#ce$Q thtft *lor*d Ciesterflfci*, when Vice- 
roy, cortto-^du^Ofthim^ the- office of barrack-riiastef. His 
howevGtf, Was' not idte. ItV 1741, he contributed to 
sV vercfcttf oft ehftwtery << Cbhstabtia, or tfo^Maitof 
fc Tate;'' a&4 in 1745, afecordfog tJb- dne- account, his 
tragedy of the u Earl of Westmoreland" was performed 
oa the Dublin stage ; Hut tb# ddkdtf of tfc«i Bibgtephia 
Bramaftea ihfortns us> tji»t^ war fit^f act^d^tJ Dublin in 
fWty utodnr thfc title oB thfe " Better ctf HW Cobrftry," 
and' again in 1754 under thdtfof 1 ^ Ittjured HtHttktr." its 
feaife, however, wa* confined* W Ireland; rior wtfs it' knowii 
itr Engtand) Until tife pubttfcatk>ri df Ms* pttetteal works ill 
1778. A more imptfrt&rit publication washis* « Farmer's 
fceatetfc," written* in K740, on tHe'pted <tf Swfttfs'BteiiJier's 
lettfetoj arid wiito' a view to rotiste tbfef spirit of freedom 
attong ttefir Irish,' threatened, as thfey wtere, in common with 
tmr feMow-sfctyfcfctfc; by rebettioft atod> invasion. 

fii 1*74$ hb wtfctte aw epilogue on the birth-day* of the 
duke <rf Cttmbferktad; spoken- bf Mr* Garrtek in Dublin, 
and a pit)togu& tt> Otfieilttt Id 17<#7 hfe contributed to 
Mttoj<e x s vok*&w* of' Rabies* four* of gre^t poetical' merit, 
*fa. tt TheTetnpteo#Hy*itett;" "TheS^rtroWandDfrve;" 
v. Thg'lfctnate Sedttder^ 1 ' atod « LoVe and Vanity ." In 
1748 he wrote a prologue to the Foundling, and a dramatic 
opera Entitled " Little John and the Giants;" This was 
acted only one night in Dublin, being then prohibited on 
account of certain political allusions. On this occasion he 
wrote " The last speech of John Good, alias Jack the 
Giant Queller," a satirical effusion, not very pointed, and 



«* BRIO O -IfE 

mixed with political allegory, and a profusion of quotatiatf* 
from scripture against tyrants and. tyranny.. In 17 4-9, his 
l c Earl of EsseK," a tragedy, was performed at Dublin, 
and afterwards, in 1760, at Drury-lane theatre, with so 
much suceess.as tQ.be preferred to the rival plays on the 
$ame subject by Banks and Jones;. At what -time his other 
dramatic, pieces were written, or acted, if acted at all, is 
uncertain*. 

His biographer informs us, that, "wearied at length 
with fruitless* efforts to arouse the slumbering genius of hi* 
country— disgusted, with her ingratitude-*-and sick of her 
venality, he withdrew to his paternal seat, and there, in 
the^ society of the _rnuses, and the peaceful bosom of do«- 
oiestic love, cpnsoled himself for lost advantages and dis** 
appointed hopes. An only brother, whom he tenderly 
loved, accompanied bis retirement^ with a family almost 
£s numerous as his own ; and there, Jbr many years, they 
lived together with. uninterrupted harmony and affection r 
the nephew .w^-as dear as the son — the uncle as revered 
as the father— and the sister-in-law almost a* beloved aa 
]the wife." 

In 1762, be published a pamphlet entitled "The Trial 
of the Roman Catholics," the object of which was to re- 
move the politicals restraints on that class, and to prove 
£hat thi? may b& done with safety. In this attempt, how+ 
fever, b)s ^eal^ed him so far as to question incontrovertible 
fsLCt&x. and even to assert ihat the history of the Irish mas, 
jsacre in. 1641 is nothing but an old wives fable ; and upon 
the whole he leans wore to the principles of the Roman 
catholic religion, than an argument professedly political 
pr a mere question of extended toleration, seemed to re* 
quire. HU V next work excited more attention in England. 
}n 176$. appeared the first volume of the "Fool of Qua* 
lity, or the history of the eajrl of, Moreland," a novel,, re* 
plete with knowledge of b u man life and: manners, and in 
which there, are many admirable traits of moral feeling and 
propriety, but mixed, as the author advances towards the 
p lose, with, so much, of religious discussion, and my$terk>ai 

* These were " The Contending but is said to have been the production 

Brothers," the " Female Officer," and of another hand/ 6f these, the " *£ 

£he ■« Marriage Gontraot,'* comedies, ; male Officer*' only j? said to have bet* 

" The Impostor," a tragedy, and- once acted, when Mrs. Woffington pep-. 

*' Cymbeline," an injddiciouft altera- sonated the officer, ' probably at ten 

tieo from Shakespeare. " Montezuma," benefit. • '• • "X -. ' ••*".? 

5 tragedy, is printed aqjODg his worl^, ; , ; , . 4 . j -,. ] 



BROOKE 55 

•torte* and opinions, as to leave it doubtful whether he in- 
clined most to Behmenism or popeiy. It became, how* 
ever,* when completed in five volumes, 1770, a very po- 
pular novel, and has often been reprinted since. 

In 1772, he published u Redemption," a poem, in which 
that great mystery of our religion is explained and ampli- 
fied by bolder figures than are usually hazarded. His 
taste wan indeed evidently on the decline, add in this as 
well as ail his later performances, he seems to have yielded 
to the enthusiasm of the moment, without any reserve ill 
favour of bis better judgment. In this poem, too, he ap- 
pears to have lost his pronunciation of the English so far 
as to introduce rhymes which must be read according to 
the vulgar Irish. His last work was u Juliet Grenville," a 
novel in three volumes, which appeared in 1774. This is 
very justly entitled " The History of the Human Heart,* 1 
the secret movements of which few novelists have better 
understood ; but there is such a mixture of the most sacred 
doctrines of religion with the common incidents and chit- 
chat of the mchiern romance, that his best friends could 
with difficulty discover among these ruins, some fragments 
which indicated what his genius had once been. 
- In this year (1774) we are told, that Garrick pressed 
him earnestly to write for the stage, and offered to enter 
into articles with him at the rate of a shilling per line for 
all be should write during life, provided that be wrote for 
him alone. ' " This Garrick, 19 says bis biographer, "looked 
upon as an extraordinary compliment to Mr. Brooke's abi- 
lities ; - but he could not, however, bring him over to hi* 
opinion, nor prevail with him to accept of his offer ; on the 
contrary, he rejected it with some degree of haughtiness — 
for which Garrick never forgave him. He was then in the 
foil and flattering career to fortune and to fame, and would 
have thought it a disgrace to hire out his talents, and tie 
himself down to necessity n In this story there is enough 
to induce us to reject it. Brooke was so far from being at 
Ibis time in the full and flattering career to fortune and to 
^me, that be had out-lived both. And supposing that 
there may be some mistake in the date of Garrick's propo- 
sal, and that for 1774 we should read 1764, or even 1754* 
.the proposal itself is too ridiculous to bear examination* 
; Our author's tenderness of heart and unsuspecting tenv» 
per involved him in pecuniary difficulties. He was ever 
prone to give relief to the distressed, although the imipe* 



*6 B ft O O K B. 

dif te roaseqoertc^ of hi? liberality was that he wanted re* 
lief himself, and at length was compelled to dispose of his 
property, and remove to Kildare. Aft^r living some time 
here, he took a farm near his former residence. Where 
this residence was, his biographers have not mentioned ; 
but soon after his return, they inform us that he lost bis 
wife, to whom he bad been happily united for nearly fifty 
yean?. The shock which this calamity gave to a mind, 
never probably very firm, and the wreck of a family of 
seventeen children now reduced to two, was followed by a 
State pf mental imbecility from which he newer recovered. 
Ttye confusion of his ideas, indeed, bad been visible in 
jftost of bis later writings, and the infirmities of age com- 
pleted what his family losses and personal disappointments 
had begun. His last days, however, were cheered by the 
hopes qf religion, which became brighter as he approached 
the b^u/ in which they were to be fulfilled. He died Oct; 
"JO, 1783*, leaving a son, since dead, and a daughter, 
tb* $bild of his old age. 

Hi? poetical works were collected in 1778, in four vo~ 
tames octavo, printed very incorrectly, and with the ad~ 
dition of some pieces which were not hm In 1792 anot- 
fber edition was published at Dublin, by his daughter, who 
jwfocured some memoirs of her father prefixed to the firai 
volume. In this she informs naf she found many difficuK- 
ties. He had lived to m advanced an age, that most of hia 
contemporaries deputed before Win, audi this young lady 
xegiembered nothing of him ptevioua tor bis retirement 
from the world. Such; an apology cfcwnet be refused, while 
we must yet regret that mm Brooke w#s not able to col- 
lect infprmauon more to be depended on, and arranged 
with mo-re attention to date*. The oamttgre* aa we find it, 
lis confused and contradictory. 

From all, however, that can now be learned, Brooke 
was a «*an of a most amiable character and ingenuous tern^ 
per, and perhaps few men have produced writings d£ tfar 
same variety, the tendency of all which is so uniformly in 
favour of religious and moral principle. Yet even in fcbi£ 
there are inconsistencies which we know not how "to ex- 
plain, unless we attribute them to an extraordinary defect 
in judgment. During a great part of his life, his religi- 
ous opinions approached to what are now termed methodise 

* He w&s in possession of the place of barrack- master of Mulliitgar, at hia 



BROOKE. 5? 

tical, and one difficulty, in contemplating hi* character, 
is to reconcile this with his support of the stage, and his 
writing those trifling farces we find among his works. Per- 
haps it may be said that the necessities of his family made 
him listen to the importunity of those friends who con* 
sidered the stage as a profitable resource ; but by taking 
such advice he was certainly no great gainer. Except in 
die case of his " Gustavu*" and '* Earl of Essex," there is 
no reason to think that he was successful, and the greater 
part of his draiftas were never performed at all, or printed 
until 1778, when he eould derive very little advantage, 
from them. Nor can we impute it to any cause, except & 
total want of judgment and an ignorance of the public 
taste, that he intermixed the most awful doctrines of reli- 
gion, and the lighter incidents and humorous sketches of 
vulgar or fashionable life, in his novels. He lived, how- 
ever, we are told, more consistently than he wrote. No 
day passed in which he did not collect his family to prayer, 
and read and expounded the scriptures to them *. Among 
his tenants and humble friends he was the benevolent and 
genefous character which he had been accustomed to de- 
pict in his works, and while be had the means, he literally 
went about doing good. 

As a poet, he delights hjs- readers principally by occa- 
sional flights of a vivid imagination, but has in no instance 
given us a poem to which criticism may not suggest many 
reasonable objections. The greater part of his life, he 
lived remote from the friends of whose judgment he might 
have availed himself, and by whose taste his own might 
fyive been regulated His first production, Universal* 
Beauty, has a aoble display of fancy in many parts. It is 
not improbable that Pope, to whom he submitted it, gave 

* The following anecdote is given being over, be opened the bible, and 

by bis biographer, with some regret preached extempore on the first text 

that he bad not been, educated for the that struck his eye. In the middle of 

church. " One Sunday, while the con- bis discourse, the clergyman Entered, 

gregation were assembled in the rural and found the whole congregation in 

church of the parish Wt which he lived, tears. He entreated Mr. Brooke to 

they waited a long time the arrival of proceed; but this he modestly refused ; 

their clergyman. At last, finding be and the other as modestly declared, 

was not likely to come that day, they that after the testimony of superior 

judged that some Occident bad detained abilities, which he perceived in the 

him J and being loth to depavt entirely moist eyes of ail present, be would* 

without their errand, they with one ac- think it presumption and folly to hazard 

cord requested that Mr. Brooke would any thing of his ewn. Accordingly, 

perform the service for them, and ex- the concluding prayers alone were 

pound a part of the scriptures — He said, and the congregation; dismissed 

consented, and the previous prayers for the day. 1 ' 



St BROOK E. 

him some assistance, and he certainly repaid his instructor 
by adopting his manner ; yet he has avoided Pope's moncw 
tony, and would have done this with more effect, if we did 
not perceive a mechanical lengthening of certain lines, 
rather than a natural variety of movement. On the other 
hand, the sublimity of the subject, by which he was in- 
spired and which he hoped to communicate, sometimes 
betrays him into a species of turgid declamation. Har- 
mony appears to be consulted, and epithets multiplied to 
please the ear at the expence of meaning. * 

BROOKE (JoHn Charles), late Somerset-herald, was 
the sou of William Brooke, M. D. of Fieldhead, near Dads* 
worth in Yorkshire, and a gentleman by descent He waft 
born in 1748, and. put apprentice to Mr. James Kirkby, a 
chemist,, in Bartlett's-buildings, London ; but discovering a 
strong turn to heraldic pursuits, and having, by a pedigree 
of the Howard family, which he drew, attracted the notice 
'of the then duke of Norfolk* he procured him a place in 
the college of arms, by the title of Rouge Croix pursui- 
vant, in 1775, - from which, in 1778, he was advapced td 
that of Somerset herald, which, office he held at his dead*, 
and by the interest of the present duke of Norfolk he wa$ 
also one of the lieutenants in the militia of the West Riding 
of Yorkshire. On Feb. 3> 1794, he was suffocated, with 
his friend Mr. Pirigo of York, and many other persons, in 
attempting to get into the pit at the little theatre in the 
llaymarket. It did not appear that he bad been throwtj 
down, but was suffocated as he stood ; his countenance 
had the appearance of sleep, and even the colour in his 
cheeks remained. ^He was interred, with great respect, 
and the attendance of the. principal members of the college 
and of the society of antiquaries, Feb. 6, in a vault under 
the heralds' seat, in the church of St. Ben net, Paul's 
Wharf. A mural monument, by Ashton, has since beeii 
placed over his remains by Edmund Lodge, esq. Lancaster 
herald. ^ . r 

Mr. Brooke, by a well-regulated oeconomy, had a^ 
quired about 14,000/. By his will he appointed his two 
sisters executrixes and residuary legatees, and bequeathe^ 
% his MSS. to the college of arms. He made many collec- 
tions, chiefly relative to the county of York. His father 

inheriting the MSS. of bis great uncle, tbe^rev. Johty 

* > 

* Johns*!) an4 Cfealapre's English Poet*. 21 igfe. 1810, gv«. 



BROOKE. Si 

JBrooke, which he had made as a foundation for the topo- 
graphy of that great division of the kingdom, they came 
into his hands, and he greatly enlarged them by his own 
industry, and by copying the manuscripts of Jennings and 
TeJIyson, which treated upon the same subject His coir 
lections were not confined to Britain ; but he added much 
to his literary labours whilst on a tour to (he continent* 
The whole shew his judgment as well as application. Be- 
coming, April 6, 1775, a member of the society of anti- 
quaries, he enriched their volumes with some curious pa- 
pers relative to the ancient seal of Robert baron Fitz- 
walter, and those of queens Catharine Parr and Mary 
d'Este; illustrations of a Saxou inscription in Kirkdal$ 
church, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and another in 
Aldborough church, in Hblderness ; and of a deed belong- 
ing to the manor of Nether-Sillington, in Yorkshire. Some 
items of his, signed J. B. appear in the Gentleman's 
Magazine ; and the first writers of the age in history, bio* 
graphy, and topography, have been indebted to bim. 1 

BROOKE (Ralph), York herald, whose real name wa? 
Brookesworth, until he changed it to Brooke, was bred to 
the trade of a painter-stainer, of which cdmpeny he be- 
came free, September 3, 1576, and leaving this, he be- 
came an officer at arms. He was so extremely worthless 
and perverse, that his whole mind seems bent to malice 
and wickedness : un&wed by virtue or station, none were 
secure from his unmerited attacks. He became a disgrace 
to the college, a misfortune to his contemporaries, and * 
misery to himself. With great sense and acquirements, b$ 
sunk into disgracfe and contempt. He was particularly 
hostile to Camden, publishing " A Discovery of Errors" 
found in his Britannia. Camden returned his attack 
partly by silence, and partly by rallying Brooke, as entirely 
ignorant of his own profession, incapable of translating or 
understanding the " Britannia," in which he had disco- 
vered faults, offering to submit the matter in dispute to the 
earl Marshal, the college of heralds, the society of anti- 
quaries, or four persons learned in these studies. Irritated 
f till mpfe, he wrote a " Second Discovery of Errors," which 
h£ presented tp James I, January 1, 1619-20, who, on thet 
4th following, prohibited its publication, but it was pub-* 
jjshed by Anstis, in 1723, in 4 to. In it are Camden's *up* 

' I Gent Maf , vol. LXlV.-^Nobfo's College of An*v 



60 BROOKE. 

posed errors, with his objections, Camden' d reply, and hw 
own answers. In the appendix, in two columns, are placed 
the objectionable passage* in the edition of 1594, and the 
Mime as they stood in that of 1600. In 1622, he published 
a *ahwlble work, dedicated t$6 James I. entitled " A Ca- 
talogue and Succession of Kings, Princes, Dukes, Mar^- 
4pft*e4, Earls, and Viscouflfs of this Realm, since the Nor* 
mm Coftqftest, until 1619, &c." snfcll fotto. In hi* ad- 
tltate to his majesty, he says, w he had spent fifty yeard* 
kbottr aiftd experience, having Served his majesty and the 
late qt*eCi* Elizabeth* of famotis memory, forty yearsr and 
rtiore." That no dot** might be entertained of his ability, 
he s4ioV he bald i# hi* custody the collections of the princi'- 
psA heralds deceased, before «ftd during his time, adding, 
without ostentation be it spoken, he held his library better 
furnished than the office of arms. He does hot neglect to 
iiftrcat James to prohibit upstarts artdf mountebanks from 
impoverishing his ro*gesty*s poor servants, th6 officers of 
arms, who labour daily, and spend both their bodies and 
substance in doing their duty, tie was twice suspended 
and imprisoned for scandalous misbehaviour : the first 
ttae, for his shameful' conduct to Segar, Garter ; and in 
¥620, a petition was exhibited against him and CresweH 
atf disturbers of the whole body of herafds. On Oct. 15, 
1627, with a view probably to expel him the college, it 
Wawf soterttidy argued, Whether be was a herald; but the 
chief barftiv of t&e % exchequer, Whitfield; decided itt hiia 
favour. Dec. 4, he and CresweH, Somerset herald, were 
sentenced to the Mfershalsea for having spoken contempt 
tutttotily of the Earl Marshal. CresweH was obliged to de- 
sign, but Bro6ke died in bis office, universally despised*, 
Oct. 15, V62&, and wag buried in the church of Reculver 
in Kcftft. l 

BROOKE, or BROKE (Sir Robert), lord : chief justice 
df the common pleas in the reign of queen Mary, and 
author of sevetol books iti the latfr, was' son of Thomafe 
JBtoeke of Claverly in Shropshire, by Margaret his wife!, 
daughter of Hugh Grosvenor of Fartnot; in that county. 
He was born at Claverly, and studied in the university of 
Oxford* which was of great advantage tb him when he 
studied the law in the Middle Temple, according to Mr. 
Wood, though Mr. Stow, in his Annals under the yetf.. 

1 Noble's College of Arms.~Getit Mag. LXIlI.— Archfcdtogia, vol. I. p.xix. 



BROOKE 61 

1552, says hie vfes of Gray's -inn. Jiy bis prddigous appli- 
cation and judgment fae became the greatest lawyer of his 
lime. In 1542 he was elected autumn or summer reader 
of the Middle Temple, and in Lent, 1550, be was chosen 
double reader. In 1552 he was by writ called to be Ser- 
jeant at law; and in 1553, which was the first of queen 
Mary's reign, he was appointed lord chief justice of the 
common pleas, and not of the king's bench, as some have 
affirmed ; and about that time he received the honour of 
knighthood from the queen, in whose reign he was highly 
valued for his profound skill in the law, and his integrity it* 
all points relating to the profession of it. Mr. Wood men- 
tions a manuscript in the Ashmolean library at Oxford, 
which informs us, that he had likewise been common Ser- 
jeant and recorder of the city af London, and speaker of 
the house of commons ; and that be died as he was visiting 
bis friends in the country, September 5, 1553, and was in- 
terred in the chancel of Claverly church, with a monu- 
ment erected to him. In his last will, proved October 12 
the same year, he remembers the church and poor of Put- 
ney near London. He left his posterity a good estate at 
Madeley in Shropshire, anfi at one or two places in Suf- 
folk. He wrote " La Graunde Abridgement," which con- 
tains, according to Mr. Wood, an abstract of the Year- 
books to the reign of queen Mary; and Nicolson, in his 
" English Historical Library," tells us, that in this work 
he followed the example of Nicholas Statham, one of the 
barons of the exchequer in the- time of Edward IV. who 
first abridged the larger arguments and tedious reports of 
the Year-books into a short system under proper heads and 
common places tp the reign of king Henry VI. ; and that 
oar author, sir Robert Brooke, made in his '< Graunde 
Abridgement,'' an alphabetical absteact of all the choice 
matters in our law, as contained m such commentaries, re- 
cords, readings, &c. and that this work is a general epitome 1 
of all that could be had upon the several heads there treated' 
upon. It has had several editions, particularly in London 
in a small folio, 15745, !576, 1586, &c. amongst which edi- 
tions, says Nicolson, (as it commonly fares with the authors 
of that profession) the eldest are still reckoned the best. 
]9 e collected likewise the most remarkable cases adjudged' 
in the court of common pleas from the sixth year of kirjg 
Henry VIII. to the fourth of queen Mary, which book is 
•tftitled " Ascuns novel Cases, &c."and frequently printed, 



*3 BROOKE. 

particularly jut London, 1578, 1604, 1625, &c. in %*<*' 
He wrote also " A Reading on the Statute of Limitation* 
32 Henry VIIL cap. 2," London, 1647, 8vo. Mr. Wood 
supposes that it had been printed likewise before that 
time. * 

BROOKSBANK, or BROOKBANK (Joseph), bora in 
1612, the son of George Brooksbank of Halifax, was en- 
tered a batler in Brazen-nose college, in Michaelmas term 
1632, took a degree in arts, went into orders, and had a 
curacy. At length removing to London, he taught school 
i,n Fleet-street, and preached there. The time of his 
death is not known. He published, 1. " Breviate of Lilly's 
Latin Grammar, &c." London, 1660, 8vo. 2. " The well- 
tuned Organ ; or an exercitation, wherein this question is 
fully and largely discussed, Whether or no instrumental 
and organical music be lawful in holy public assemblies ? 
Aifirmatur," ibid. 1660, 4to. 3. " Rebels tried and cast*, 
in three Sermons, 1 ' ibid. 1661, 12mo. f 

BROOME (William) was born in Cheshire, as is said, 
of very mean parents. Of the place of his . birth, or the 
first part of his life, we have not been able to gain any in- 
telligence. He was educated upon the foundation at Eton, 
and was captain of the school a whole year, without any 
vacancy, by which he might have obtained a scholarship at 
King's college. Being by this delay, such as is said to have 
happened very rarely, superannuated, he was sent to St* 
John's college by the contributions of his friends, where 
he obtained a small exhibition. At his college he Jived 
^ for some tigae in the same chamber with the well-known 
JjFprd, t)y whom Dr. Johnson heard him described as a con- 
"tractfjd scholar and a mere versifier, unacquainted with life^ 
and qpskilful in conversation. His iiddiction to, metre was 
then such, that his companions familiarly called him Pott. 
When he had opportunities of mingling with mankind, he 
cleared himself, as Ford likewise owned, from great part 
of his scholastic rust. 

He appeared nearly in the world as a translator of the 
Iliads into prose, in conjunction with Ozetl and Oldis- 
f worth. How their several parts were distributed i&.npt 
known. This is the translation of which Ozell boasted a& 
superior, in Tolaftd's opinion, to that of Pope : it has long 

< VGen. Diet vol. X. p. 547.— Ath. Ox. vol, L— Tanner. 
» *Ath Ox. vol. Il.~Wmtson?s Halifax* • - **. 

» ' V ... i^^ . y 



Broome. cs 

stace vanished, and is how in no danger from the critics. 
He was introduced to Mr. Pope, who was then visiting sir 
.John Cotton at Madingiey, near Cambridge, and gained 
so much of his esteem, that he was employed to make ex- 
tracts from Eustathius for the notes to the translation of 
the Iliad ; and in the volumes of poetry published by 
Lintot, commonly called Pope's Miscellanies, many of his 
early pieces were inserted. Pope and Broome were to be 

{ret more closely connected. When the success of the 
had gave encouragement to a version of the Odyssey, 
Pope, weary of the toil, called Fenton and Broome to his 
assistance ; and, taking only half the work upon himself, 
divided thej other half between his partners, giving four 
books to Fenton, and eight to Broome. Fenton's books 
ire enumerated in Dr. Johnson's Life of him. To the lot 
4f Broome fell the 2d, 6th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 1 6th, iSth, 
and 23d ; together with the burthen of writing all the 
notes*. The price at which Pope purchased this assist- 
ance was three hundred pounds paid to Fenton, and five 
hundred to Broome, with as many copies as hte wanted for 
his friends, which amounted to one hundred more. The 
4 payment made to Fenton is known only by hearsay; 
Broome's is very distinctly told by Pope, in the notes to 
the Dunciad: It is evident that; according to Pope's own 
estimate, Broome was unkindly treated. If 'four books 
could merit three hundrecf potthd$> eight, and alt the 
notes, equivalent at least to four, had certainly a right to 
jfcore than six. Broome probably considered himself as 
injured, and there was for some' time more* than coldness 
between him and his employer. He always spoke of Pope 
as too much a loVer of money, and Pope pursued him with 
avowed hostility, for he not only named him disrespectfully 
in the " Dunciad," but quoted him more than once in the 

* . * "As this translation it a eery id- .though Pope, in *t> advertisement pre- 

portant event in poetical history, the fixed afterwards to a new volume of his 

reader has a right to know upon what works, claimed only twelve. A natu* 

^grounds I establish my narration: — That ral curiosity after the real conduct of 

the version was not wholly Pope's, was so great an undertaking, incited me 

, always known ; he bad mentioned^ the once to inquire of Dr. Warburton, who 

' assistance of two friends in his pro- told me, in hit warm language, that he 

*po*d», and at the end of tfw work> thought the relation given in the note 

.•some account is gives by Broome .of a lie ; but that he was not able to as* 

^heir different parts, which, however, certain the several shares. The intel- 

memious only five books as written by ligenoe which Dr. Warburton could not 

the coadjutors ; the fourth, and twen- . afford me, I obtained from Mr. Lang- 

tieta, by Fenton ; the sixth, the ele«t ton, to whoa Mr. Spenoe had imparted 

Ttotb, and U&e eighteenth, by himself: it.'* Dr. Jobwson. ' 



6* BROOME. 

Bathos, as a proficient in the Art of Sinking ; and in hi* 
enumeration of the different kinds of poets distinguished 
for the profound, he reckons Broome among " the parrots 
who repeat another's words in such a hoarse odd tone as 
makes them seem their owp." It has been said that they 
were afterwards reconciled ; but we are afraid . their peac? 
was without friendship. He afterwards published a Mis* 
ceilany of poems, and never rose to very high dignity ia 
the church. He was some time rector of Sturston in Suf~ 
folk, where he married a wealthy widow ; and afterwards, 
when the king visited Cambridge, 1729* became IX. D. 
He was, 1733, presented by the crown to the rectory of 
Pulham in Norfolk, which he held with Oakley Magna 
in Suffolk, given him by the lord Cornwallis, to whom ho 
was chaplain, and who added the vicarage of Eye in Suf- 
folk} he then resigned Pulham, and retained the other 
two. Towards the close of his life he grew again poetical, 
and amused himself with translating odes of .Anacreon, 
which he published in the Gentleman's Magazine, under 
the na«*e of Chester, He died at Bath, Nov. 16, 1745* 
and was buried in the abbey church. 

Of Broome, says Dr. Johnson, though it cannot be said 
that he was a great poet, it would be unjust to deny that 
be was an excellent versifier; bis lines are smooth and so-* 
norous, and bis diction is select and elegant. His rhymes 
are sometimes unsuitable, but such faults occur but sel-> 
dom, and be had such power of words and numbers as 
fitted him for translation ; but in his original works, recol- 
lection seems to have been his business more than inven- 
tion. His imitations are so apparent, that it is a part of 
his reader's employment to recall the verses of some former 
poet. . What he takes, however, he seldom makei worse ; 
and be cannot be justly thought a mean man, whom Pope 
chose for an associate, and whose co-operation was con- 
sidered by Pope's enemies as so important, that he was 
attacked by Henley with this ludicrous distich : 

*' Pope came off clean with Homer : but they say 
Broome went before, and kindly swept the way/' 

Broome also published a coronation sermon in 1727* 
and an assize sermon in 1737. l 

BROSCHI (Carlo), better known under the name of 
Farinello, was born the 24th of January, 1705, at Andria, 

1 English Poets by Jotoffon, fcc, *-Nkfcolt'f P+ems, tol. IV.— JofeoMft* 
Works. See Index. 



BROSC IM. 65 

in the kingdom of Naples, of a family noble, though poor. 
From the patent of his knighthood of the order of Cala- 
trava, it appears that he was indebted for the lasting agree- 
ableness of his voice, not to a voluntary mutilation from, 
the thirst of gain, but that he was obliged to undergo the 
cruel operation on account of a dangerous hurt he received 
in his youth, by a fall from a horse. He owed the first 
rudiments of the singing art to his father Salvatore Brosco, 
and his farther formation to the famous Porpora. At that 
time there flourished at Naples three wealthy brothers of 
the name of Farina, whose family is now extinct. These 
persons vouchsafed him their distinguished patronage, and 
bestowed on him the name of Farinello. For some time 
his fame was confined to the convivial concerts of his pa- 
trons, till it happened that the count of Schrautenbach, 
nephew of the then viceroy, came to- Naples. To cele- 
brate his arrival, the viceroy and his familiar friend An- 
tonio Caracciolo, prince della Torella, caused the opera 
of " Angelica and Medoro" to be represented, in which 
Metastasio and Farinello plucked the "first laurels of their 
immortal fame. 

Thus fortune united the two greatest luminaries that 
have appeared on the theatre in modern times, at the en- 
trance on their career. Metastasio was then not more than 
eighteen, and Farinello not above fifteen years of age. 
This circumstance gave birth to an intimacy between them, 
which at length was improved into a cordial friendship, 
supported and confirmed, as long as they lived, by a regular 
intercourse of epistolary correspondence. 

Soon after Farinello was called to the principal theatres 
in Italy, and every where richly rewarded. Between the • 
years 1722 and 17 $4, he gave proofs of his powers at 
Naples, Rome, Venice, and most of the cities of Italy; 
and indeed more than once in almost all these places ; six 
times at Rome, and at Venice seven. The report of his 
-talents at length found its way across the Alps. Lord Es- 
sex, the English ambassador at Turin, received a com- 
mission to invite him to .London; where, for six months 
performance, he was paid 1 500/. At Rome, during the 
run of a favourite opera, there was a struggle every night 
between him and a famous player on the trumpet, in a song 
accompanied by that instrument; this, at first, seemed 
amicable, and rilerely sportive, till the audience began to 
interest themselves in th* contest, and to take different sides. 

Vol* VIL F 



to B'RO S C H I. 

After severally swelling out a note, in which each manU 
fested the power of his lungs, and tried to rival the other 
in brilliancy and force, they had both a swell and a shake 
together, by thirds, which was continued so long, while 
the audience eagerly waited the event, that both seemed 
to be exhausted ; and, in fact, the trumpeter wholly spent, 
r gave it up, thinking however his antagonist as much tired 
as himself, and that it would be a drawn battle ; when 
Farinello, with a smile on his countenance, shewing be 
had only been sporting with him all this time, broke out 
all at once in the same breath, with fresh vigour, and not 
only swelled and shook the note, but ran the most rapid 
and difficult divisions, and was at last silenced only by the 
acclamations of the audience. From this period may be 
dated that superiority which he ever maintained over all 
his contemporaries. 

Scarcely ever had any singer a like capacity of per- 
petually giving new accessions of force to his voice, and 
always with pleasure ; and when it had attained to the 
highest degree of energy, to keep it for a long time at that 
pitch which the Italians call mezza di voce. While he 
sung at London, in the year 1734, in an opera composed 
by his brother Riccardo, at another theatre they were per-* 
forming an opera set to music by Handel, wherein Se~ 
nesini, C ares tin i, and the no less celebrated Cuzzoni, had 

{>arts. Farinello from the very beginning was acknowl- 
edged to have the superiority by a mezza di voce, though 
the rival theatre was favoured by the king and the princess 
of Orange, of whom the latter had been Handel's scholar. 
By this inferiority it fell into a debt of nine thousand 
pounds. 

The desire of exciting admiration, and of captivating the 
ear mare than the mind of an auditor, still adhered to him, 
but his good fortune provided him with an opportunity of 
discovering and correcting this error. During his youth 
he was three times at Vienna. In the year 1732 he wa$ 
there declared chamber- singer to his imperial majesty. 
The emperor Charles VI. shewed him great affection, partly 
on account of his excellency as a singer, and partly also 
because he spoke the Neapolitan dialect with great form* 
ality and drollery. The emperor was a pice judge of singing^ 
and would frequently accompany him on the harpsichord* 
One day he entered into a friendly conversation with 
kirn on music, and praised indeed his wonderful force au4 



/ 



BR08CHI. €7 

dexterity in this art, but blamed the too great affectation 
©fan excellence which does not touch the heart. " Choose,* 1 
said he, " a simpler and easier method ; and be sure that, 
with the gifts wherewith you are so richly endowed by na- 
ture, you will captivate every hearer." This advice had 
such an effect on Farinello, that from that hour he struck 
out into a different manner. He confessed, himself, to 
Dr. Burney, that the emperor's gracious advice had had 
more effect upon him than all the lessons of his teachers, 
and all the examples of his brother artists. Whoever is 
desirous of knowing more concerning the perfection he 
bad reached in the art he professed, will get all the sa- 
tisfaction he can require on that head, by perusing the 
" Riflessioni sopra il canto figurato" of Giovanni Baptista 
Mancini. 

From the moral failings to which theatrical performers 
are commonly addicted, he was either totally free, or in- 
dulged them with moderation. At first he was fond of 
gaming, but after some time he forsook it entirely. He 
behaved with sigular probity to the managers of the opera. 
As they paid him richly, he made it a point of honour to 
promote their interest as far as it depended on him. For 
this reason he carefully avoided every thing that might be 
a hindrance to him in the fulfilling of his engagements. He 
even set himself a strict regimen, and moderated himself in 
his amusements. He was so conscientious on this head, that 
be would not for any consideration be prevailed on to let a 
song be heard from him out of the theatre ; and, during 
his three years stay in England, he constantly passed the 
spring season in the country, for. the sake of invigorating 
his lungs, by breathing a free and wholesome air. In his 
expences he was fond of elegance, yet he indulged it 
without extravagance ; so that even before he left Italy, he 
had already laid out a capital upon interest at Naples, and 
bad purchased a country-house, with lands about it, si- 
tuated at the distance of half.an Italian mile from Bologna, 
By degrees he rebuilt the mansion in a sumptuous style, 
itk hopes of making it a comfortable retreat for his declining 
years : and there he afterwards ended his life. 

In the year 1737, when he had reached the summit af 
fame,, he appeared for the last time on the stage at London ; 
from whence he departed for the court of Spain, whither 
he was invited through the solicitations of queen Elizabeth, 
who had known his excellence at Parma. Her design was, 

F 2 



68 B R O S C HI. 

by the ravishing notes of this great master, to wean her 
spouse king Philip V. from his passion for the chace, trf 
which his strength was no longer adequate. On, his way 
to Madrid, he had the honour to give a specimen of his 
talents before the French king at Paris J and we are told 
by Riccoboni, that all the audience were so astonished at 
hearing him, that the French, who otherwise detested the 
Italian music, began from that time to waver in their no- 
tions. He had scarcely set his foot in Madrid, but the 
king hastened to hear him ; and was so much taken with 
the agreeableness of his song, that he immediately settled 
on him, by a royal edict, a salary equal to what he had 
received in England, together with an exemption from all 
public taxes, as a person destined to his familiar converse ; 
aijd granted him, besides, the court equipages and livery, 
free of all expence. He could not pass a day without him ; 
not only on account of his vocal abilities, but more on ac- 
count of the agreeable talents he possessed for. conversa- 
tion. He spoke French and Italian elegantly, had some 
knowledge of the English and German, and in a short time 
learnt the Castilian. By his courtesy and discretion he 
gained the affection of every one. In his converse he was 
sincere to an uncommon degree, even towards the royal 
personages who honoured him with their intimacy ; and it 
was chiefly this that induced the monarch to set so high 
a value on him. JH is first words, when he waked in the 
morning, were regularly these : " Let Farinello be told 
that I expect him this evening at the usual hour." To- 
wards midnight Farinello appeared, and was never dis- 
missed till break of day, when he betook himself to rest, 
in the apartments assigned him in the palace, though he 
had likewise a house in the city. To the king he never 
sung more than two or three pieces ; and, what will seem 
almost incredible, they were every evening the same. 
Excepting when the king was to go to the holy sacrament 
on the following day, Fariuello was never at liberty to get 
a whole night's sleep. 

Farinello had as great an affection for the king, as that 
prince had for him ; and had nothing more at heart than 
to cheer and enliven bis spirits : and indeed herein he had 
the happy talent of succeeding to admiration, though him- 
self was inclined to melancholy. Under Ferdinand, Philip's 
successor, he had an ampler field for the display of his ge- 
nius and skill. This monarch had a good ear for music, 



BROSCHL. 6* 

and knew how to judge properly of it; as he had studied 
under Domenico Scarlatti, who had likewise been tutor to 
queen Barbara, whose taste in music was exquisite. As 
king Philip had given Farinello the charge of selecting re- 
creations and amusements suitable to his calm and gentle 
disposition, a variety of new institutions were set on foot 
through his means at court. Operas were only used to be 
performed on very solemn and extraordinary occasions ; the 
nation at large was contented with comedies. They now 
began to grow more common; and Farinello, though he 
played no part in them, had the management of the whole. 
He possessed all the qualities that were requisite for the 
direction of an opera. For, with a perfect knowledge of 
music, he had great skill in painting, and made drawings 
with a peft. He was fruitful in inventions, particularly, of 
such machines as represent thunder, lightning, rain, hail, 
and tire like. The celebrated machinist Jacob Bonavera 
formed himself under his direction. In regard to the mo- 
rality of the theatre he - was very conscientious. Under 
bis direction all went on at the king's expence ; and none 
but persons in the service of the royal family, the ministers 
from foreign potentates, the nobility, with the principal 
officers of state, and a few others, by particular favour, 
had admittance. In his country-house near Bologna are 
to be seen, among other paintings, those from whence 
Francis Battagliuoli copied the scenes in the operas Niteti, 
Didone, and Armida. 

Besides the choice and arrangement of the royal amuse- 
ments, Farinello was employed in various other matters that 
required a delicate taste. Queen Barbara having resolved 
on an institution for the education of young ladies, our 
singer was pitched upon not only to plan and direct the 
erection of the convent, and the proper retirade for the 
queen adjoining, but he gave orders for the making of the 
furniture suitable to the structure ; and the church vessels, 
which he caused to be executed with incredible alacrity, 
at Naples, Bologna, and Milan. He himself made ado- 
nation to this establishment of a picture, by the hand of the 
celebrated MorigUo, of St. John de Dio, founder of the 
brethren of mercy, carrying a sick man on his back. He 
was likewise inspector of the music of the royal chapel ; 
which he provided with the most noted spiritual composi- 
tions, by which the chapel of his holiness at Rome is dis- 
tinguished above all others. 



10 B R O 8 C H I. 

King Ferdinand had purposed all along to feWard "thfr 
ingenuity and attachment of Farinello by splendid promo- 
tions. He had already offered him several posts of honbftr,' 
and at length pressed him to accept of a place in the royal 
council of finance. But, on his refusing them all, the 
king privately found means to get from Naples the attes- 
tations of his nobility, that he might honour him with the 
order of Calatrava. One day, holding up to him the cross 
of the order, he said to him, " Let us se3 then whether 
thou wilt persevere in refusing every thing fchdt comes 
from our hand." Farinello fell on his knee 'before the 
king, and begged him graciously to withhold this honour, 
at least till he could have the proofs of the genuine no- 
bility of his blood fie prove del sangue) transmitted him 
from home. " I have already performed the pare of a sur- 
geon," returned the king, " and have found that thy blood 
is good ;" and then with his own hand fixed the cross upon 
his breast. He afterwards received the order with all due 
formality from the graud master, in the convent of the 
ladies of Comthury of Calatrava, among the archives 
whereof the originals of it are preserved. 

The world were not a little surprised at the elevation of 
Farinello. But to those who looked narrowly into his mo* 
ral character it was no wonder at all ; and they rejoiced at 
it. He had nothing in him of what are called the airs of a 
courtier. He enjoyed the favour of the monarch more in 
being serviceable to others, than in turning it to his own 
emolument. When right and equity spoke in behalf of 
any one, that person might be sure of his interest with the 
king ; but, if the case was reversed, he was immoveable as 
a rock. One of the great men applied to him once for his. 
recommendation to be appointed viceroy of Peru, and 
offered him a present of 400,000 piastres by way of in-, 
ducement. Another sent him a casket filled with gold,, 
desiring no other return than his friendship. He gene- 
rously spurned at the proposals of both. General Monte- 
mar had brought with him from Italy a great number of 
musicians and other artists, who, on the disgrace of that 
officer, were all left destitute of bread. Farinello took 
them into his protection, and furnished them with the 
means of gaining a livelihood. Among them was Jacob 
Campana Bonavera, whom he placed as assistant to the 
machinist Pa via, and afterwards promoted him to the in- 
spectorship of the royal theatre. Theresa Castellini of 



B R O S C H I. 






Milan, the singer who had heen called by queen Barbara 
to Madrid, and who at that time had a greater disposition 
than qualification for the art, he took under his instruction, 
and completed her for her employment. In the dreadful 
distresses that ensued upon the earthquake at Lisbon, 
when the vocal performers and dancers implored his as- 
sistance, to the collection he made for them from the royal 
family and his friends, he added two thousand doubloons 
from his own private purse. Disposed as he was to be 
liberal in bis bounty towards others, he found it no less 
difficult to ask for any thing that had reference to himself. 
It was not by his recommendation, but by his own deserts, 
that his brother Riqcardo was promoted to the office of 
commissary at war for the marine department. This Ric- 
cardo died in 1756, in the flower of his age. He had been 
master of the band in the service of the duke of Wurtem- 
berg ; and a musical work printed at London is a proof of 
his force and skill in composition. 

He was also grateful and generous towards every one 
that had shewn him any kindness*. Never was he heard 
to speak ill of any man; and when he was injured, he 
magnanimously overlooked it. There are even examples 
of his heaping favours on some that shewed themselves 
envious and malignant towards him. To a Spanish noble- 
man who murmured that the king testified so much muni- 
ficence to a castrato, he made no other return than by 
procuring for his son a place he applied for in the army, 
and delivering to him himself the king's order feu; his ap- 
pointment. He was in general extremely circumspect not 
to distinguish himself by any thing by which he might 
excite the envy and jealousy of the nation against him. 
Hence it was, that he constantly declined accepting the 
comthury of the order of Calatrava, which the king had so 



* He frequently sent his former in- 
structress, Porpora, considerable pre- 
sents in money to London, Vienna, and 
Naples ; but on no account would be 
have her near him, she was of so im- 
prudent and loquacious a temper. On 
the death of Antonio Beroacchi, he 
had him buried wirh great funeral 
pemp. The misfortunes of Crudeli, 
the Florentine poet, who bad addressed 
tome verses to him, he took very much 
to heart ; yet it is by no means probable 
that he had any share in the forcible 
deliverance ef him from the dungeoas 



of the inquisition; By his bounty Tie 
supported the family of the painter 
Amiconi, who died much too early fur 
them that knew him ; and that of the 
vocal musician Scarlatti, who had 
fallen into poverty by indulging- in 
play. Free from every spice of jea- 
lousy, he furnished the singers Egi- 
zielle, Raf, Atnadari, Garducci, Car- 
lani, and others, with an opportunity 
of shewing their talents in the presence 
of the king, by whom, th.ey were richly 
rewarded. 



n 



BROSCHI. 



frequently offered him; beseeching him rather, to bestow 
it on one of his deserving subjects. His generous way of 
thinking was not unnoticed by the Spaniards. Every one 
courted his friendship. The grandees of the kingdom, the 
foreign and domestic ministers, vouchsafed him their visits, 
and he was never wanting in due respect for their civilities* 
Towards persons of inferior stations he was always conde- 
scending and friendly*. 

To put away all suspicion of self-interested views, he 
made it a condition in the disbursements for the $qt$rtain« 
ments of the king and queen, that all accounts should pass 
through the hands of a treasurer appointed for that pur- 
pose, which were always with the utmost exactitude en* 
tered in a book. He was zealously devoted to the Roman 
catholic religion. He kept his domestic chaplain at Lon- 
don, as he had obtained a permission from Benedict XIV. 
to have a portable altar during his residence there, and to 
have mass celebrated at it in the. chapel in his house. To 
this ecclesiastic he always gave precedence on all occa- 
sions. Indeed, while in England, he ate flesh on Fridays 
and . Saturdays ; but then he had a licence for it from 
Jtome. Who would have thought that so brilliant a suc- 
cess Would, be brought to an end in the course of a very 
short period? King Ferdinand and queen Barbara were 
both of them in the flower of their age ; both healthy and 
strong. Yet death carried them off in a short space, one 
after the other. The queen went first, 'and left Farineilo 
ner collection of music and her harpsichords, as a token 
of regard. The king, who loved her tenderly, fell into a 
deep dejection of spirits. To get away from the doleful 
pounds of the death-bells, be retired to the pleasure-house 
of Villa Viciosa, where his excessive melancholy, after a 
space of fourteen days, laid him on the bed of sickness. 
Farineilo was called to him the day after his departure 



* His taylor one day brought him 
home a new suit of very rich clothes. 
Farineilo was in the act.of paying him. 
his bill, when he was suddenly stopped 
by the man's telling him that he would 
much rather he would grant him ano- 
ther favour instead of it. " I come 
backwards and forwards so often, said 
be, to your excellency's bouse ; I have 
90 frequently the honour to take your 
orders and. try on your clothes j but I 
have never had the happiness to hear 
your heavenly strains, with the praise 



whereof the whole court resounds. I 
beseech you then not to take it amiss, 

if I ask" He had finished no 

more of bis speech, when Farineilo, 
with a friendly smile, interrupted him 
by taking a chair to the .harpsichord, 
and beginning a song with the same, 
energy aud execution as when he sang 
before his majesty. This done, he or- 
dered bis secretary to pay him double 
the amount of his bill. By such me* 
tbods be gained the love of all men, 
both of high and low degree. 



B R O S C H L 



75 



from Madrid, and never quitted him till he was no more. 
He died the 10th of August, 1759, of a rapid decline, in 
the 46th year of his age, after a sickness of eleven months 
from the death of the queen. 

The loss of such a friend, and the consequences of it, 
were extremely distressing to Farinello. The king had 
hardly closed his eyes, but the favourite's apartments were 
as solitary as a desert. Friends and acquaintance, whom 
he had loaded with benefits, now turned their backs upon 
him, and a general revolution took place in his affairs. 
Two days after the king's death he returned to Madrid* 
and there remained till the arrival of king Charles from 
Italy. He went as fac as Saragossa to meet him, to thank 
him for the assurance he had given him of continuing his 
appointment. The king received him very graciously, 
and confirmed the promise be had already made him the 
foregoing year, at the same time adding, that he was in- 
duced to this by his moderation and discretion, and that 
he was thoroughly convinced that he had never abused the 
king's partiality for him. After a stay of three weeks at 
Saragossa, he bent his course towards Italy, without re* 
turning to Madrid, where he had commissioned a friend 
to send his baggage after him. In Italy his first care, was 
to wait upon don Philippo duke of Parma, and the king of 
Naples, who gave him a very gracious reception^ The 
joy which his old friends and patrons testified on his re- 
tarn to Naples is not to be described. After remaining 
here six months, he repaired to Naples by the way of Bo- 
logna, where he passed the rest of his days in tranquillity*. 

In the year 176$, when the emperor Joseph II. w^s 
travelling through Bologna, though his stay was to be but 
short in that place, one of the first questions he asked was, 



* In the number of his most inti- 
mate friends was the celebrated father 
Martini, of the order of Minorites, 
whose equal in respect to taste in vocal 
performances rs not easily to be found. 
The learned world is indebted to Fari- 
nello for tbe appearance of his famous 
** History of Music," Bernacchi, the 
common friend of both, was informed 
of his intension, and at the same time, 
of bis irresolution, on account of the 
numberless difficulties he had to sur- 
mount in so great an undertaking. He 
made Farinello, acquainted with all the 
circumstances of the matter ; who im* 



mediately told him, that he might give 
father Martini to know, that queen Bar- 
bara had graciously condescended to 
accept of bii dedication of his " His* 
tory of Music." The good man, who 
had never once thought of hoping for 
Fuch an encouragement, now deter, 
mined not to disappoint the kind inten- 
tions of his friend ; wrote a letter of 
thanks to the queen, and applied him- 
self to his History with Unremitted di- 
ligence. He was the confessor, the 
counsellor, and the firmest friend of 
Farinello to the last moment of bU 
life. 



74 B R OS CHI. 

where Farinello had taken up his abode ? and on being told 
that he dwelt just without the city, he testified some dis- 
pleasure ; and added, that a man who possessed so great 
a force of genius, had never injured any one, but had 
done all the good that lay in his power to mankind, was 
worthy of every token of respect that could be paid him. 
But the emperor on his return stopped longer at Bologna, 
and Farinello had the honour of conversing with him often 
for a length of time, and quite alone. 

In the very lap of ease, rest was a stranger to Farinello' s 
bosom. As some veteran mariner, long aecustomed to 
great and perilous voyages, cannot endure the tediousness 
of abiding in harbour, so it was with Farinello's active 
mind. He feh the effects of that melancholy to which he 
Was disposed by nature, growing on him from day to day; 
and which was nourished and augmented by the continual 
sight of the portraits of his distant and for the most part 
deceased friends, with which his apartments were adorned: 
His voice continued clear and melodious to the last. He 
still sung frequently, and he alone perceived the depre- 
dations of time, while his friends who heard him observed 
ijo defect. During the three last weeks of his life, like 
what is fabled of the dying swan, he sung almost every 
day. He died the 16th of September, 1782, of a fever, 
in the 78th year of bis age, without the least abatement of 
his intellectual powers throughout his illness. He left no 
wealth behind him ; as while he was in Spain he had always 
lived up to his annual income, and what remained over to him 
while in Italy, he shared among his relations and friends 
and the necessitous, during his life-time. His land, his 
pleasure-house at Bologna, and all the rest of his property, 
among which were several harpsichords of great value, and 
the music he had inherited from the queen, he left to his 
eldest sister, who was married to Giovanni Domenica 
Bisani, a Neapolitan. His corpse was interred in the 
church of the Capuchins, which stands on a hill before 
Bologna. He was of a very large stature, strong built, of 
a fair complexion, and a lively aspect. His picture, 
which is to be seen among the portraits and works of the 
famous vocal artists collected by father Martini, in the 
library of the minorites at Bologna, is a perfect likeness. 1 , 

\ Dr. Burney's Travels, and Hist* of Music— Hawkins's Hilt, of Music, 



BROSSARD. 75 

BROS SARD (Sebastian de), an eminent French 
musician, born in 1660, in the former part of his life 
had been prebendary and chapel -master of the cathedral 
church of Strasburgh, but. afterwards became grand 
chaplain and cbapel-master in the cathedral of Meaux. 
He published a work entitled " Prodromus Musicalis, 
ou elevations et motets a voix seule, avec une Basse 
continue," 2 vols. fol. the second edition in 1702; 
but his most useful book was his " Dictionnaire de Mu- 
sique," Amst. 1702; fol. at the end -of which is a catalogue 
of authors, ancient and modern, to the amount of nine- 
hundred, who have written on music, divided into classes^ 
with many curious observations relating to the history of 
music, which have been of great service to musical writers* 
and historians. Grassineau's Dictionary, published in P.740,' 
is not much more than a translation of Brossard's work ; 
it was also of great service to Rousseau, whose eloquence 
has certainly furnished us with a more pleasant book, yet* 
Rousseau is acknowledged to be most correct where he 
most closely copies Brossard. Brossard died in 1730. • He* 
had a numerous library of music, which he presented to' 
Louis XIV. who gave himself a pension of 1200 livres, andt 
the same sum to his niece. 1 

. BROSSE (Guy de la), physician in ordinary to Louis 
XIII. obtained from that king, in 1626, letters patent for 
the establishment of the royal garden of medicinal plants, 
of which be was the first director. He immediately set 
about preparing the ground, and then furnished it with 
upwards of 2000 plants. The list of them may be seen in 
his" Description du jardin royale," 1636, 4to. Richelieu, 
Seguier, and Bullion, contributed afterwards to enrich it. 
He composed a treatise on the virtues of plants, 1628, 8vo, 
and before this, in 1623, one on the plague. He died in 
1641. ■ 

BROSSES (Charles de), a French writer of great 
learning, was born at Dijon, in \1Q9, and became a coun- 
sellor of parliament, in 1730, and president i mortier in 
1742. During the leisure which his public employments 
afforded, he cultivated most of the sciences, and was al- 
lowed to be well acquainted with all. Voltaire only has 
attacked his literary reputation, and this his countrymen 
ascribe to the malice which that writer was seldom anxious 
to conceal. Buffon, on the contrary, regarded him as a ' 

( 

1 More ri. — Hawkins's Hist, of Music. — Diet. Hist. 
• Moreri.— Haller BiW. But— Diet Hist 



1* B R O S S £ S. 

scholar of the first rank, an acute philosopher, and an ori- 
ginal and valuable writer; nor was he less estimable in 
private life. In 1774 he was appointed president of the 
parliament of Burgundy, but died soon after, at Paris, in 
1777, whither he had come to visit his married daughter* 
He was a member of the academy of Dijon, of the inscrip- 
tions and belles lettres, and other learned societies. He 
wrote : 1. " Lettres sur la Decouverte de la ville d'Hercu- 
laneum," 1750, 8vo. 2. " Histoire des Navigations aux 
Terres Australes," 175*5, 2 vols. 4to, in which he endea- 
voured to prove the existence of a southern continent, 
which subsequent navigators have disproved. 3. *' Du 
culte des dieux Fetiches, ou parallele de 1'ancienne ido- 
latrie avec celle des peuples de Nigritie," 1760, 12mo, 
a piece which has been improperly attributed to Voltaire. 
4. " Traite de la formation mecanique des Langues," 
1765, 2 vols. 12 mo, in which he attempts a general ety- 
mological system founded on the mechanical formation of 
articulate sounds ; but his countrymen allow that he leans 
too much to paradox, which certainly has long been an 
extensive branch of French philosophy. 5. " Histoire de 
la Republique Romaine dans la coursduVII siecle, par 
Salluste," Dijon, 3 vols. 4to. This may be accounted his 
principal work, and was long his principal employment. 
He was so sensible of the loss of Sallust's principal work, 
that be resolved to collect his fragments with greater care 
than had ever been employed before ; and by the mosi 
accurate arrangement to trace out as near as possible the 
pl$u and chief features of that work, and then to connect 
these fragments in the manner of Freinshemius in his 
" Fragmenta Livii." But as De Brosses soon became 
sensible of the difficulty of assimilating his Latin 'diction 
tp that of Sallust, he changed his first design, and resolved 
on translating both the fragments and his author's histories 
of the Catilinarian and Jugurthine wars into French, and 
to attempt to supply the lost work from other ancient 
writers. The first volume opens with a preface containing 
remarks on the various methods of writing history, and 
some information concerning Roman names, ranks, magis- 
tracies, and elections. The body of the work itself begins 
with a translation of, and commentary on, Sallust's Jugur- 
thine war. The -notes subjoined to this part treat chiefly 
of the geography and population of Africa, and the text is 
illustrated by a map of Africa, a plan of MetelWs march 



B R O 8 8 E S. 77 

against Jugurtha, and its illustration by a military con- 
noisseur. After this follows the restoration of Sallust's fivg 
books, continued in vol. II. comprizing the war with Mi- 
thridates : a description of the Pontus Euxinus, with the 
adjacent countries ; the Gladiatorian war, raised by Spar-* 
tacus, and the war of Creta. The third volume contains a 
translation of the Catilinarian war, with its sequel, illus- 
trated with historical and political notes ; Sallust's two let- 
ters to Caesar^ commonly styled " Orat. de Rep. ordinan- 
ce," which De Brosses considers a? genuine ; a very mi- 
nute collection of all the notices of Sallust's life, writings, 
gardens, buildings, and even of the. remains discovered in 
Jater times. The whole concludes with the abbfe Cas- 
sagne's " Essay on the Art of composing History, and on 
the works of^Sallusc" Industrious as M. de Brosses has 
been in this work*, we believe that in the life of Sallust, at 
least, he has been improved upon by Henry Stuart, esq. 
in bis late elaborate publication, " The works of Sallust, 9 ' 
1806, 2 vols. 4to. Besides these, De Brosses contributed 
many learned papers to the Paris and Dijon memoirs, but 
bis family disown 3 vols, of " Lettres historiques et cri- 
tiques sur l'ltalie," published in 1799* in his name. 1 

BROSSETTE (Claude), of France, was born at Lyons 
in 1671* He was at 6rst a Jesuit, but afterwards an ad- 
vocate, a member of the academy of Lyons, and librarian 
of the public library there. In 1716, he published the 
works of Boileau, in 2 vol?. 4to, with historical illustra- 
tions-: and, after that, the works of Regnier. He re- 
formed the text of both these authors from the errors of 
the preceding editions, and seasoned his notes with many 
useful and curious anecdotes of men and things. His only 
fault, the fault of almost all commentators, is, that he did 
not use the collections he had made with sufficient sobriety 
and judgment; and has inserted many things, no ways ne- 
cessary to illustrate ins authors, and some that are even 
frivolous. He wrote also " L'Histoire abr£g£e de.la ville 
de Lyon,' 9 with elegance and precision, 1711, 4to; and 
died there in 1746. He had a friendship and correspond- 
ence with many of the literati, and particularly with 
Rousseau the poet, and Voltaire. The latter used to tell 
him, that he " resembled Attic us, who kept terms, and 
^ven cultivated friendship, at the .same time with Caesar 

* DkL HisL Elogc in Hist. Acfli. Re;. Park. vol. XUL 



78 B-ROSSfiTTE. 

and Pompey.".' The enmity between Rousseau and Voir- 
taire is well known. l 

. BROTIER (Gabriel), an eminent classical scholar and 
editor, was born at Tanay, a small village of the Niver- 
nois, i(i 1722, and died at Paris, Feb. 12, 1789, at the 
age of '67. In his youth he made it his practice to write 
notes in every book that he read ; and the margins of seve- 
ral in his library were entirely filled with them. Until his 
l$st moment he pursued the same method of study. All 
tbeee, he arranged wonderfully in his memory; and if it 
had been possible after his death to have put his papers in 
that order which he alone knew, they would have furnished 
materials for several curious volumes. With this method, 
and continued labour for twelve hours a day, the abb£ 
Brotier acquired an immense stock of various knowledge. 
Except the mathematics, to which it appears he gave little 
application, he was acquainted with every thing ; natural 
history, chemistry, and even medicine. It was his rule 
to read Hippocrates and Solomon once every year in their 
original languages. These \he said were the best books 
fpr curing the diseases of the body and the mind. But the 
belles- lettres were his grand pursuit. He had a good 
knowledge of all the dead languages, but particularly the 
Latin, of which he was perfectly master: he was besides 
acquainted with most of the languages of Europe. This 
knowledge, however extensive, was not the only part in 
which he excelled. He was well versed in ancient and 
modern history, in chronology, coins, medals, inscriptions, 
and the customs of ami qui ty, which had always been ob- 
jects of his study. He had collected a considerable quan- 
tity of materials for writing a new history of France, and 
it is much to be regretted that he was prevented from un- 
dertaking that work. The akbe' Brotier recalls to our re- 
membrance those laborious writers, distinguished for their 
learning, Petau, Sirmond, Labbe, Cossart, Hardouin, Sou- 
ciet, &c. wjio have done so much honour to the college 
of Louis XIV. in which he himself was educated, and where 
he lived several years as librarian ; and his countrymen 
say he is the last link of that chain of illustrious men, who 
have succeeded one another without interruption, for near 
two centuries, On the dissolution of the order of Jesuits, 
the abb£ Brotier found an asylum equally peaceful and 

» M*r^U~D;ct. Hift 



BROTIER. 19 

agreeable in the house of Mr. de la Tour, a printer, emi- 
nent in his business) who has gained from ail connoisseur* 
a just tribute of praise for those works which have come 
from his press. It was in this friendly retirement that th* 
abbe Brotier spent the last twenty-six years of his life, and 
that he experienced a happiuess, the value of which he 
knew how to appreciate, which arose from the care, atten- 
tion, and testimonies of respect, bestowed upon him both 
by Mr. and Mrs. de la Tour. It was there also that h* 
published those works which will render his name immor- 
tal ; an edition of Tacitus, enriched not only with notes 
and learned dissertations, but also with supplements, which 
sometimes leave the reader in a doubt, whether the mo* 
dern writer is not a successful rival of the ancient: this 
was first published in 1771, 4 vols. 4 to, and reprinted in, 
1776, in 7 vols. 8vo. He published also in 1779, 6 vols. 
12 mo, an edition of Pliny the naturalist, which is only a 
short abridgment of what he had prepared to correct and 
enlarge the edition of Hardouin, and to give an historical 
§eries, of all the new discoveries made since the beginning 
of this century; an immense labour, which bespeaks the 
most extensive erudition. To these two editions, which 
procured the abbe Brotier the applauses of all the literati 
in Europe, he added in 1778, 8vo, an edition of Rapin on 
gardens, at the end of which he has subjoined a history of 
gardens, written in Latin with admirable elegance, and 
abounding in the most delightful imagery : for the abb6 
was not one of those pedants, according to the expression 
of the poet, " heriss^s de Grec & de Latin j" he pos- 
sessed a lively imagination, and a fine taste, with clearness 
and perspicuity ; and above all, a sound judgment, which 
never suffered him to adopt in writing any thing that 
was not solid, beautiful, and true. His other works are, 
I. " Examen de l'Apologie de M. I'Abbe* de Prades," 1753, 
8vo. 2. " Conclusiones ex universa Theologia," 1754, 
4to. 3. " Traite des Monnoies Romaines, Grecques, et 
Hebr. comparers avec les Monnoies de France, pour 1' in- 
telligence de TEcriture Sainte, et de tous les auteurs Grec* 
et Roinains," 1760, 4to. 4. " Prospectus d'une edit. Lat. 
de Tacite," 17G1, 5 vols. 4to. 5. " Supplementa, lib. 7. 
10 Anpal. Taciti," 1755, 8yo. 6. " CI. viri de la CaiU* 
vita," 1763, 4to. 7. " Phajdri Fabularum, lib. v< cum 
jiotis et suppl. .access. Parallel a J. de la Fontaine Fabulae," 
1785, 12mo. 8. "Memoire du Levaut," 1780, and ane.dU 



30 B R O T I E K. 

tion of " Brumoy's Theatre," 1785, 13 vols. 8vo. In 1790 
his nephew published his " Parolles Memorabies," a work 
x>{ which Mr. Seward has made great use in his " Anec- 
dotes." 

We shall conclude this account of the amiable abbe with 
his character as drawn by his friend the abb6 de Fontenay. 
" That intimate and sincere friendship," says he, u which 
united me to the abbe Brotier, gratitude for the services 
which he did me, his talents and his virtues, will always 
endear his memory tome; and I may justly say, that his 
death, though lamented -by many good men, was lamented 
by none more deeply than by me." However great may 
have been the merit of this learned man, not less conspi- 
cuously eminent for the qualities of his heart than for those 
of his head, one must have been intimate with him to form 
a just and true idea of his character. As often as my avo- 
cations would permit, I indulged tayself in the pleasure of 
his company, and many delightful hours I have spent with 
him. Humble and unassuming, modest, and even to a 
degree of timidity that caused him to blush when the least 
encomium was passed upon him ; good-tempered, plain in 
his manner, and giving himself up to society with the 
smiles and simplicity of a child, his conversation was en* 
gaging, aud always instructive when it turned upon sub- 
jects of literature or science. Widely differing in this 
respect from those men of letters who are misers, if we 
may say so, of their knowledge, and who seem to hoard it 
only for themselves, or to make an ostentatious display of 
it in some publication, the abbe* Brotier readily replied to 
the questions of those who sought information from him, 
and instructed those around him with the utmost affability' 
and condescension. I confess," continues the abbe* Fon- 
tenay, '< that need of consulting him induced me often to 
visit him ; and I can declare that whatever questions I put 
to him, I never found him in one instance wrong. He 
either satisfied me immediately respecting my queries, or 
pointed out those books in which I found what I wanted to 
know. He left a nephew of the same name, who is in the 
church. He is pursuing his yncle's steps in the same de- 
partments of erudition, and has already published works 
which sufficiently evince the progress he has made." ' 

» Diet. Hut.— SaxU Oiwontt vol. VIIL 



BROOGHTO-N. 81 

BROUGHTON (Hugh), a divine of great eminence for 
his extensive knowledge in Hebrew and rabbinical learning, 
was descended from an ancient family, and born in 1549, 
at Oldbury, in the county of Salop. Dr. Ligbtfoot says, 
that it is uncertain in what school he was instructed > in 
grammar, but, according to the writers of the life of Ber- 
nard Gilpin, he was brought up in the school founded by 
that excellent man at Houghton, and by him sent to Cam- 
bridge. Gilpin is said to have become acquainted with him 
by accident, when he was a poor boy travelling on the Ox* 
ford road, and finding him a good scholar, took the charge 
of bis farther education. The biographer of Gilpin adds, 
apparently upon slender foundation, that Broughton acted 
with ingratitude to Gilpin, when the latter was old and 
infirm^ and persuaded the bishop of Durham to give him a 
living intended for Gilpin. 

Ac Cambridge, Broughton became one of the fellowa of 
Christ's college, and there laid the first foundation of his 
Hebrew studies, under a Frenchman, who read upon that 
tongue in the university. His parts and learning soon 
rendered him very conspicuous at Cambridge, and also 
attracted the notice of the earl of Huntingdon, who be* 
came a liberal patron to him, and greatly encouraged him 
in his studies. From the university he repaired to London, 
where he distinguished himself, as a preacher, and in- 
creased the number, of his friends, some of whom were of 
high rank. He still, however, continued to prosecute his 
studies with the most unremitting assiduity ; so that he is 
said frequently tp have spent sixteen hours out of the four- 
and -twenty at iiis books *. ; 

In 1588, he published a piece, entitled " The Consent * 
of Scriptures/' This was a work in which he was em- 
ployed several years; and which, therefore, he used to 
call his " little book of great pains." It is a kind of scrip- 
ture chronology, and scripture genealogies, and appears 
to have been compiled with great labour. It was dedicated 
to queen Elizabeth, to whom it was presented by himself, 
on her inauguration day, Nov. 17, 1589 f. He appears 

* The author of his life in the Biog. there is not some reason to suspect that 

Brit takes no notice of his having been Hutchinson's Broughton was 1 a different 

collated to a prebend of Durham, Nov. person. 

*J» 1578, and to Washington rectory, f Query. Was this the copy on vel- 

May 6, 1580, when he resigned his lum mentioned by Mr. Dibdin in his 

prebend. Hutchinson's Durham, vol* Bibliomania, and once in Mr. Tutet's 

u. p. 209. But we know not whether possession } 

Vol. VII. G 



v 

I 



It 



BROUGHTON. 



to have had some assistance in it from Speed, who over- 
looked the press, and compiled those genealogies 1 which 
are prefixed to the old Bibles ; but Broughtqn certainly 
directed and digested them. Speed is said to have owed 
many obligations to Brougbton, and had a vast number of his 
manuscripts, which, for whatever reason* • he burnt But, 
to return to the " Consent of Scripture ;" it excited much 
attention at its first publication, but was strongly opposed 
by Dr. Reynolds at Oxford. This gave great offence to 
Mr. Broughton, who had a very earnest and absurd desire 
to have the dispute between him and Dr. Reynolds, con- 
cerning the scripture chronology, settled by public au- 
thority. He addressed on this subject queen Elizabeth, 
Dr. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Aylmer, 
bishop of London. His work was opposed, not only at 
Oxford, but at Cambridge, where Mr. Lively, a professor, 
read publicly against it. He was, therefore, induced to 
read lectures in defence of his performance, which he did 
first in St. PauPs, at the east end of the church, and after- 
wards in a large room in Cheapside, and in Mara>lane*. 

He continued several years in London,* where he pro- 
cured many friends. One of these was Mr. William 
Cotton, whose son Rowland, who was afterwards knighted, 
he instructed in the Hebrew tongue* In 1589 Mr. Brough- 
ton went over into Germany, accompanied by Mr. Alex- 
ander Top, a young gentleman who had put himself 
under his care, and travelled with him, that he might 
continually receive the benefit of his instructions. He was 
some time at Frankfort, where he had a long* dispute in 
the Jewish synagogue, with rabbi Elias, on the truth of 
the Christian religion. He appears to have been very so- 
licitous for the conversion of the Jews, and his taste for 



* " This was his course of teaching 
in private. His auditors had every 
ene of them the Consent before him, 
and he went on still in exposition of it 
along with the Bible, and bad his au- 
ditors diligently read the Scriptures, 
and keep them to the chronology of it : 
and shewed what, and how much they 
should read against their next meeting, 
to be prepared for his discourse then, 
.and withal handled the Genealogies, as 
the matter of those scriptures called 
for explication for that time of the. 
chronology; that they should under- 
stand what scriptures were contained 



within such a space of time. And still 
he shewed the doctrine of faith and 
love in Christ Jesus in every age, how 
believed and practised by the faithful, 
and who despised. And, in applica- 
tion, he would sum up all in a quarter 
of an hour, or more, as the matter re- 
quired. Of these his lectures there 
are yet extant the notes of four-and- 
thirty, and the notes of nine of his 
sermons, in which he collated the sec- 
tions of Moses, and the Prophets, wit a 
the New Testament : all taken from his 
mouth, when he delivered them." 1 '— 
Lightfeot's preface to his works. 



B R O U G H t O N. ** 

.rabbinical aad Hebrew studies naturpdly led him to take 
pleasure in the conversation, of those learned Jews whom he 
occasionally met with. In. the course of his travels, he 
had also disputes with the papists ; but in his contests both 
with them and with the Jews, be was not very attentive to 
the rules either of prudence or politeness. It appears, 
that in 1590 he was at Worms ; but in what other places ia 
not mentioned. In 1591 be returned again to England, 
and met at London with his antagonist Or. Reynolds ; and 
they referred the decision of the controversy between 
them, occasioned by his " Consent of Scripture," to Dr, 
Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Aylnjer, 
bishop of London. Another piece which he published* 
entitled " An Explication of the article of Christ's Descent 
.to Hell/' was a source of much controversy, though his 
opinion on this subject is now generally received. Two 
of his opponents in this controversy were archbishop Whit* 
gift and bishop Bilson. He addressed on this subject 
" An Oration to the Geneveans," which was. first published 
in Greek, at Mentz, by Albinus. In this piece be treats 
the celebrated Beza with much severity. In 1592 he was 
in Germany again, and published a piece called " The 
Sinai Sight," which he dedicated to the earl of Essex, and 
had the odd whim of having it engraved on brass, at a con- 
siderable expence. About the year 1596, rabbi Abraham 
Reuben wrote an epistle from Constantinople to Mr. 
Broughton, which was directed to him in London ; but 
he was then in Germany. He appears to have continued 
abroad till the death of queen Elizabeth; and during his 
residence in foreign countries, cultivated an acquaintance 
with Scaliger, Raphelengius, Junius, Pi?torius, Serrarius, 
and other eminent and learned men. He was treated with 
particular favour by the archbishop of Mentz, to whom he 
dedicated his translation of the Prophets into Greek. He 
was also offered a cardinal's hat, if he would have em- 
braced the Romish religion. But that offer he refused to 
accept, and returned again to England, soon after the ac- 
cession of king James I. In 1603 he preached before 
prince Henry, at Oatlands, upon the. Lord's Prayer. In 
1607 the new translation of the Bible was begun ; and Mr. 
Jfroughton's friends expressed much surprize that he was 
not employed in that work. It might probably be disgust 
on this account,. which again occasioned him to go abroad; 
and during his stay there, he was for some time preacher 

Q 2 



S4 BROUGHTON; 

to the English at Middleburgh. But finding his health 
decline, having a consumptive disorder, which he found 
to increase, he returned again to England in November, 
1611. He lodged in London, during the winter, at a 
friend's house in Cannon-street ; but in the spring he was 
removed, for the benefit of the air, to the house of another 
friend, at Tottenhaih High-cross, where he died of a pul- 
monary consumption on the 4th of August, 1612, irt the 
sixty-third year of his age. During his illness he made 
such 'occasional discourses and exhortations' to his friends, 
as his strength would enable him; and he appears to have 
had many friends and admirers even to the last. His 
corpse was brought to London, attended by great- numbers 
of people, many of whom had put themselves in mourning 1 
for him ; and interred in St. Anthbtin's church, where his* 
funeral sermon was preached by the rev. James Speght, 
B. D. afterwards D. D. minister of the church in Milk- 
street, London. Lightfoot mentions it as a report, that 
the bishops would not suffer this sermOn to bis published ; 
but it was afterwards printed at the end of his works, 

His person was comely and graceful; and his counte- 
nance expressive of studiousness and gravity. His indefa- 
tigable attention to his studies, gave 'htm' an air of austerity; 
and, at times, there appears to have been no inconsi- 
derable degree of moroseness in his deportment u . notwith- 
standing which, he is represented as behaving in' a very 
kind and affable manner t6 his friends, and asb&ngvery 
pleasant in conversation with them, especially at his meals; 
He would also be free and communicative to any persons 
who desired to learn of him, but very angry with scholars^ 
if they did not readily comprehend his meaning. Oped 
impiety and profaneness were always opposed by him with 
great zeal and courage. He was much dissatisfied, as 
appears fronrseveral passages in his works, that his great 
learning had not procured him more encouragement, and 
he evidently thought that he had a just claim to some 
considerable preferment. He was unquestionably a man* 
of very uncommon erudition, but extremely deficient in 
taste and judgment. He was also of a testy and choleric 
temper, had a high opinion of his own learning and abi- 
lities, was extremely dogmatical, and treated those who 
differed from him in opinion with much rudeness and scur- 
rility ; though some allowance must be made for the age in 
which he lived, in which that mode of writing was much 



BR OUGHTOR U 

more common among divines and scholars than it is at pre- 
sent. From the general tenor of his life and of his works, 
and the opinion formed of him by those who were the best 
acquainted with him, it seems equitable to conclude, that, 
with all his failings, he meant well; nor do we apprehend 
that there is any sufficient ground for the extreme severity 
with which the late Mr. Gilpin has treated him in his " Life 
of Bernard Gilpin.'* He translated the Prophetical wri- 
tings into Greek, and the Apocalypse into Hebrew. He 
was desirous of translating the whole New Testament 
into Hebrew, which, he thought would have contributed 
much to the conversion of the Jews, if he had met with 
proper encouragement, And he relates, that a learned 
Jew with whom he conversed, once said to him, " O that 
you would set over all your New Testament into such He- 
brew as you speak to me, you should turn all our nation/' 
Most of his works were collected together, and printed at 
London in 1662, under the following title: " The Works 
of the great Albionean divine, renowned in many nations 
for rare skill in Salems and Athens tongues, and familiar 
•acquaintance with all Rabbinical learning, Mr. Hugh 
•Brrfughton." This edition of his works, though bound in 
one large volume, folk), is divided into four tomes. Dr. 
Lightfoot, who was himself a- great master of Hebrew 
and - rabbinical .learning, says* that in the writings of 
Brougbton, " the serious and impartial student of them 
will find these two things. First, as much light given in 
scripture, especially in the difficultest things thereof, as is 
to be found in any oue author whatsoever ; nay, it may be, 
in all authors together. And, secondly, a winning and 
enticing enforcement to read the scriptures with a serious- 
ness ami searching more than ordinary. Amongst those 
that have studied his books, multitudes might be named 
that have thereby grown proficients so far, as that they 
have attained to a most singular, and almost incredible 
-skill and readiness, in his. way, in the .understanding of 
the Bible, though otherwise unlearned men. Nay, some 
such, that, by the mere excitation of his books, have set 
£o the study of the Hebrew tongue, and come to a very 
great measure of knowledge in it ; nay, a woman might be 
named that hath done it. This author's writings do carry 
with them, I know not what, a kind of holy and happy 
fascination, that the serious reader of them is won upon, 
by a sweet violence! to look in the scripture with all 



86 broughton; 

possible scrutraoasness, and cannot choose. Let any one 
but set to read him in good earnest, and, if be find not, 
that he sees much more in scripture than ever he could 
see before, and that he is stirred up to search much more 
narrowly into the scripture than ever he was before, he 
misseth of that which was never missed of before by any 
that took that course, if multitude of experiences may 
have any credit.*' It will justly be thought in the present 
age, that Dr. Lightfoot formed too high an opinion of the 
value of Broughtoa's writings; but in whatever estimation 
they may now be held, the celebrity of Broughton in his 
own time, and his extraordinary learning, gave him a rea- 
sonable claim to some memorial in a work of this kind. 
Many of his theological MSS. are preserved in the British 
Museum, of which a list is given in Ayscough's catalogue. l 

BRQUGHTON (Richard), a popish ecclesiastical his- 
torian, was born at Great Stukely in Huntingdonshire, and 
studied for some time at Oxford, but it does not appear 
that he entered any college, and only seems to have re- 
sided there for the purpose of consulting the public library. 
He received his regular education at the English college 
at Rheims, and took priest's orders in 1593. He was after- 
wards sent into England as a missionary, and promoted the 
popish interest as far as lay In his power, without giving 
public offence. < He died in 1634, and was buried in the 
church of Great Stukely. His principal works were, " An 
Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain ; from the Nativity 
to the conversion of the Saxons," Doway, 1633, fol. re- 
plete with legendary matter ; " A True Memorial .of the 
ancient, most holy, and religious state of Great Britain, 
&c. in the time of the Britons, and primitive church of. 
the Saxons," 1650, 8vo; and, " Monastioon Britannicum," 
1655, 8vo.* 

BROUGHTON (Thomas), a learned divine, and one 
of the original writers of the Biographia Britannica, was 
"born at London, July J, 1704, in the parish of St. An- 
drew, Holborn ; of which parish his father was minister. 
At an early age he was sent to Eton-school, where he soon 
distinguished himself by the acuteness of his genius and 
the studiousness of his disposition. Being superannu- 
ated joii this foundation, be removed, about 1722, to the 

l Biqg. Brit— Strype*i Whitgift, p. 81, 382/ 431, 481, 499, 516, 526, 589, 
?fcere there are many curious particulars illustrative of Broughton's history* 
• Alfa. Ox. vol. 1.— Dodd'9 €h. Hist, vol IIL— Fuller's WerUtiet. 



B » O U G HT O N. S7 

university of Cambridge ; and, for the sake of a scholar* 
ship, entered himself of Gonville and Caius college. Here 
two of the principal objects of hi* attention were, the ac- 
quisition , of the knowledge of the modern languages, and 
the study of the mathematics, under the famous professor 
Sanderson. May 28, 1727, Mr. Broughton, after taking 
the degree of B. A. was admitted to deacon's orders. . In 
the succeeding year, Sept.. 22, he was ordained priest, and 
proceeded to the degree of M. A. At this tiiqe he re* 
moved from the university to the curacy of Offley in Hert- 
fordshire. In 1739, he was instituted to the rectory of Ste- 
pington, otherwise Slibington, in the county of Huntingdon, 
on the presentation of John duke of Bedford, and was ap- 
pointed one of that nobleman's chaplains. Soon after, he was 
chosen reader to the Temple, by which means he became 
known, to bishop Sherlock, then master of it, who con- 
ceived so high an opinion of our author's merit, that, in 1 744, 
this eminent prelate presented Mr. Broughton to the valu- 
able vicarage of Bedminster, near Bristol, together with 
the chapels of St. Mary Redcliff, St. Thomas, and Abbot's 
Leigh, annexed. Some short time after, he was collated, 
by the same patron, to the prebend of Bedminster and 
Redcliff, in the cathedral of Salisbury. Upon receiving 
this preferment, he removed from London to Bristol, where 
he married the daughter of Thomas Harris, clerk of that 
city, by whom he had seven children, six of whom sur- 
vived him. He resided on his living till his death, which 
happened Dec. 21, 1774, in the 71st year of his age. He 
was interred in the church of St. Mary Redcliff. 

From the time of Mr. Broughton's quitting the univer- 
sity, till he was considerably advanced in life, he was en- 
gaged in a variety of publications ; and some little time 
before his death, composed " A short view of the principles 
Upon which Christian churches require, of their respective 
. clergy, Subscription to established Articles of Religion ;" 
but this work never appeared in print* He possessed, 
likewise, no ineousiderable talent for poetry, as is evident 
from many little fugitive pieces in manuscript, found 
among his papers ; and particularly, from two unfinished 
tragedies, both written at the age of seventeen. During 
his residence in London, he enjoyed the esteem and friend- 
ship of most of the literary men of his time. He was a 
great lover of music, particularly the ancient ; which in- 
troduced him to the knowledge and acquaintance of Mr. 



*8 BROUGHTON. 

Handel/ whom he fumisbed with the words for many of 
his compositions. In his public character, Mr. Brougbton 
was distinguished by an active zeal for the Christian cause, 
joined with moderation. In private life, be was devoted 
to the interests and happiness of bis family ; and was of » 
mild, cheerful, and liberal temper. This disposition, which 
is not always united with eminent literary abilities, at- 
tended him to his grave. In 1778, a posthumous volume 
of sermons, on select subjects; was published by his son, 
the rev. Thomas Broughton, M. A. of Wadbam college, 
Oxford, and vicar of Tiverton, near Bath. « 

The following is a list of his publications, but we have 
not .been able to recover the dates of all of them : 
1. *' Christianity distinct from the Religion of Nature, in 
three parts ; in answer to Christianity as old as the Crea- 
tion." 2: u Translation of Voltaire's Tepnple of Taste." 

3. "Preface to his father's letter to a Roman catholic." 

4. " Alteration of Dorrel on the Epistles and Gospels from 
a Popish to a Protestant book," 2 vols. 8vo. 5. Part of 
the new edition* of Bayle's Dictionary in English, cor- 
rected: with a translation of the Latin and other quota- 
tions; 6. " Jarvis's Don Quixote ;" the language tho- 
roughly altered and corrected, and the poetical pajts new 
translated. 7. " Translation of the mottoes of the Spec- 
tator, Guardian, and Freeholder." 8. " Original poems 
and translations, by John Dry den, esq" now first collected 
and published together, 2 vols. 9. " Translation of the 
quotations in Addison's Travels, by him left untranslated." 
10. " The first and third Olynthiacs, and the four Philip- 
pics of Demosthenes" {by several hands), revised and cor- 
rected ; with a new translation of the second Olynthiac, 
the * oration de Pace, and that de Chersoneso : to which 
are added, all the arguments of Libanius, and select notes 
from Ulpian, 8vo. Lives in the ; Biographia Britannica, 
marked T. .11." The bishops of London and Winchester 
on the sacrament, compared." 12. " Hercules,". a musi- 
cal drama. 13. " Bibliotheca historico-sacra, an Histori- 
cal dictionary of all religions, from the creation of the 
world to the present times," 1756, 2 vols, folio. .14. " A 
defence of the commonly-received doctrine of the Human 
Soul." 15. "A prospect of Futurity, in four dissertations; 
with a preliminary discourse on the natural and moral eYV» 
dence of a future state." l . . 

» Bio$. Brit vol. II. Preface, 



BROUNCKER. 89 

BROUKflUSIUS. See BBXTEKHUSIUS. 

BROUNCKER (William), viscount Brouncker, of .Cas- 
tle Lyons in Ireland, son of sir William Brouncker, after- 
wards made viscount in 1645, was born about 1620; and, 
having received an excellent education, discovered an 
early genius for mathematics, in which he afterwards be- 
came, very eminent. He was created M. D. at Oxford, 
June 23, 1646. In 1657 and 165,8, he was engaged in a 
correspondence, on mathematical subjects with Dr. John 
Wallis, who published the letters in his " Commercium 
Epistolicum," Oxford, 1658, 4 to. He, with others of the 
nobility and gentry who had adhered to king Charles I. in . 
and about London, signed the remarkable declaration pub- 
lished in April 1660. After the restoration, he was made 
chancellor to the queen consort, and a commissioner of the 
navy. He was one of those great men who first formed 
the royal society, and, by the charter of July 15, 1662, 
and that of April 22, 1663, was appointed the first 
president of it : which office he held with great advantage 
to the society, and honour to himself, till the anniversary 
election, Nov. 30, 1677. Besides the offices mentioned 
already, he was master of St. Katherine's near the Tower 
of London ; his right to which post, after a long contest 
between him and sir Robert Atkyns, one of the judges, 
was determined in his favour, Nov. 1681. He died at his 
house in St. James's street, Westminster, April 5, 1684; 
and was succeeded in his honours by his younger brother 
Harry, who died Jan. 1687. Of his works, notwithstand- 
ing his activity in promoting literature and science, there 
are few extant These are : u Experiments on the re- 
coiling of Guns, 1 ' published in Dr. Sprat's History of the 
Royal Society ; " An algebraical paper upon the squaring 
of the Hyperbola," published in the Philosophical Trans- 
actions. (See Lowthorp's Abr. vol. I. p. 10, &c.) ; " Se- 
veral Letters to Dr. James Usher, archbishop of Armagh/' 
annexed to that primate's life by Dr. Parr ; and " A trans- 
ition of the Treatise of Des Cartes, entitled Musicte 
Compendium," published without his name, but enriched 
with a variety of observations, which shew that he was 
deeply skilled in the theory of the science of music. Al- 
though he agrees with his author almost throughout the 
book, he asserts that the geometrical is to be preferred to 
the arithmetical division ; and with a view, as it is pre- 
sumed, to the farther improvement of the " Systema Par- 



30 BROUNCKER. 

ticipato," be proposes a division of the diapason by sixteen 
mean proportionals into seventeen equal semitones; the 
method of which division is exhibited by him in an alge- 
braic process, acid also in logarithms. The " Systems 
Participator' which is Mentioned by Bontempi, consisted 
in the division of the diapason, or octave, into twelve equal 
semitones, by eleven mean proportionals. Descartes, we 
are informed, rejected this division for reasons which are 
far from being satisfactory. Mr. Park, in' his edition of 
lord Orford's " Royal aiid Noble Authors," to which we 
are frequently indebted, points out an original commission, 
among the Sloanian MSS. from Charles II. dated White- 
hall, Dec. 15, 1674, appointing lord Brouncker and others 
to inquire into, and to report their opinions of a method of 
finding the longitude, devised by Sieur de St. Pierre. * 

BROUSSON (CiAUDi), a French Protestant and 
martyr, was born at Nismes, in 1647, He was an id vo- 
<sate, and distinguished by his pleadings at Castres and 
Toulouse ; and it was at his house that the deputies of the 
Protestant churches assembled in 1663 : where they took 
a resolution to continue to assemble, although their churches 
were demolished. The execution of this project occa- 
sioned violent conflicts, seditions, executions, and mas- 
aacres, which ended at length in an amnesty on the part of 
Lewis XIV. Brousson retired then to Nismes; but, fearing 
to be apprehended with the principal authors of this pro- 
ject, who do not seem to have been comprised within the 
amnesty, he became a refugee at Geneva first, and thence 
at Lausanne. He shifted afterwards from town to town, 
and kingdom to kingdom, to solicit the compassion of 
Protestant princes towards his suffering brethren in France;* 
Returning to his own country, he travelled through se- 
veral provinces, exercised some time the ministry in the 
Cevennes, appeared at Orange, and passed to Berne, in 
order to escape his pursuers. He was at length taken at 
Oleron, in 1698, and removed to Montpellier ; where, 
being convicted of having formerly held secret corre- 
spondence with the enemies of the state, and of having 
preached in defiance of the edicts, he was broke upon the 
wheel the same year. He was a man of great eloquence 
as well as zeal, greatly esteemed among strangers, and 
•regarded as a martyr by those of his own persuasion. The 

* feiof . Prit— Atfa. Ob. voL IL— Hawkiat'i Hist, of Music. 



BROUSSON. 91 

states of Holland added six hundred florins, as a pension 
for his widow, to four hundred which had been allowed to 
her husband. His writings being principally those which 
arose out of. the circumstances in which the reformed 
church were then placed, we shall refer to Moreri for the 
exact titles and dates, and give only the subjects, namely: 
1. " The state of the reformed in France." 2. " Letters 
to the French clergy in favour of the reformed religion/ 9 
3, " Letters from the Protestants in France to all other 
Protestants," printed and circulated at the expence of the 
elector of Brandenburg. 4. " Letters to the Roman Ca- 
tholics." 5. " A summary relation of the wonders wrought 
by God in the Cevennes and Lower Languedoc, for the 
consolation of his church." 6. A volume of Sermons. 
7. " Remarks on Amelotte's translation of the New Tes- 
tament ;" and some religious tracts, which he published 
for circulation in France. l 

BROUSSONET (Peter Augustus Maria), an eminent 
French naturalist, was born at Montpellier, Feb. 28, 1761, 
where his father was a reputable schoolmaster, and soon 
discovered in him an insatiable thirst of knowledge, which 
we may conclude he assisted him in gratifying. At the 
early age of eighteen he was appointed by the university 
of Montpellier to fill a professor's chair, and six years after 
he was admitted a member of the academy of sciences by 
an unanimous vote, a case which had not occurred from 
the foundation of that learned body, but their choice ap- 
peared amply justified by the several dissertations on na- 
tural history, botany, and medicine, which he published. It 
was bis earnest wish to establish the system of .Linnseus more 
extensively in France. With this view, as well as for his own 
improvement, he went to Paris, and examined the collec- 
tions and museums, but not finding sufficient materials for 
his purpose, he determined to visit the most celebrated 
foreign collections, and came first to England, where he 
was admitted an honorary member of the royal society, and 
where he began his labours on the celebrated work on 
fishes. On his return to Paris, he was appointed perpetual 
secretary of the society of agriculture, which the intendant 
Berthier de Sauvigny resigned for him. In 1789 he. was 
appointed a member of the electoral college of Paris, and 
Kke die other electors, was to supply such vacancies as 

* DtaerwDicUHist. 



M BROtfSSONET. 

were occasioned by any interruptions in the exercise of the? 
office of magistracy ; and the day it was his torn to go to 
the Hotel de Ville, he saw his friend and protectbr, Ber- 
thier, barbarously murdered by the pop uface. Broussonet 
was then ordered to superintend the provisions of the ca* 
pital, and was frequently in danger of his life at that tur- 
bulent period. In 1791 he had a seat in the legislative 
assembly, but quitted Paris the year following for his 
native city, from which be was soon obliged to make his 
escape, and after many dangers, arrived at Madrid, where 
he was gladly received, and liberally assisted by the lite- 
rati of that city. There, however, the French emigrant* 
were so enraged at his having filled any office under the 
revolutionary government, th&t they obliged him to leave 
Madrid, and soon after, Lisbon, to which he had removed: 
At hist he had an opportunity of going out as physician to 
an embassy which the United States sent to the emperor 
of Morocco,' and on this occasion, 'his friend sir Joseph 
Banks, hearing of his distresses, remitted him a credit for 
a thousand pounds. After his arrival at Morocco, he em- 
ployed all his leisure hours in extending his botanical 
Knowledge, and learning ; that his native country was re- 
covering from its late anarchy, he solicited and obtained 
permission to return, when the directory appointed him 
consul at the Canaries. In consequence of this he resided 
for two years at Teneriffe. In 1796, on his return, he 
was admitted a member of the Institute, and again became 
professor of botany at Montpellier, with the direction of 
the botanical garden. He was afterwards chosen a mem- 
ber of the legislative body, but died July 27, 1807, at 
Montpellier, of an apoplectic stroke. It • was to him that 
France owes the introduction of the Merino sheep, and 
Angola goats. His publications are : K " Varies positioned 
circa Respirationem," Montpellier, 1778. 2* " Ichthyo- 
logia, sistens Piscium descriptiones et icones," London, 
1782, containing descriptions of the most rare fishes; 

3. ." Essai sur l'histoire naturelle del quelques especes de 
Moines, decrites a la maniere de Linnie," 1784, 8vd. 
This is the translation only of a Latin satire on the monks, 
the original of which appeared in Germany, in 1783. 

4. * Ann6e rurale, ou calendrier a Tusage des culrivateursj" 
Paris, 1787-8, 2 vols. 12mx>. 5. " Notes pour servir a 
l'histoire de Tecole de medicine de Montpellier pendant 
l'an VI." Montpellier, 1795, 8vOr » 6. <« La Feuille dm 



B R O U S S O N E T. »» 

wdtivateur," 1788, and following years, 8 vols. 4to, which 
he conducted with Messrs. Parmentier, Dubois, and Le- 
febure. He contributed also a great many dissertations to 
the academy of sciences, • the society of agriculture, &c. 
and left many works in manuscript. * 

BROUWER, or BRAUWER (Adrian), a celebrated 
painter, according to some, was born at Oudenarde, in 
Flanders, or according to others, at Haerlem, in Holland, 
in 1608. His parents were of the poorer sort. His mother 
sold to the country people bonnets and handkerchiefs, on 
which Adrian, when almost in infancy, used to . paint 
flowers and birds, and while thus employed, was disco- 
vered by Francis Hals, an eminent artist, who, charmed 
with the ease and taste he displayed in his art, proposed to 
take him as an apprentice, and Brouwer did not long he* 
sitate about accepting such an offer. His master soon 
discovered his superior talents, and separated him from 
his companions, that he might profit the better by him, 
locked him up m a garret, and compelled him to work, 
while he nearly starved him, but some pieces he painted by. 
stealth, which probably irritated his jailor to be more watch- 
ful of him. By the advice, however, of Adrian Van Ostade, 
one of his companions, he contrived to make his escape, 
and took refuge in a church. ; There, almost naked, and 
not knowing where to go, he was recognised by some per- 
son, who brought him back to his master, and by means of 
a suit of clothes and some caresses, effected a temporary 
reconciliation ; but being again subjected to the same mer- 
cenary and tyrannical usage, he made his escape a second, 
time, and went to Amsterdam, where he had the happiness 
to find that his name was well known, and that his works 
bore a great price. A picture dealer with whom he lodged, 
gave him an hundred ducatoons-for a painting represent- 
ing gamesters, admirably executed, which Brouwei*, who 
had never possessed so much pioney* spent in a tavern 
in the course of ten days. He then returned to his 
employer, and when asked what he had done with his 
money, answered that he had got rid of it, that he might 
be more at leisure; and this unfortunate propensity to 
alternate work<and extravagance marked the whole of his 
future life, and involved him in many ridiculous adventures 
and embarrassments unworthy of a man of genius. As 

* Diet. Him 



?♦ BROUWER. 

soon as he had finished any piece, he offered it for sale 4 , 
and if it did not produce a stipulated price, he burnt it, 
and began another with greater care. Possessing a vein of 
low humour, and engaging, both sober and drunk, in many 
droll adventures, he removed from Amsterdam to Antwerp, 
where be was arrested as a spy, and committed to prison. 
This circumstance introduced him to an acquaintance with 
the duke d'Aremberg, who, having observed his genius, by 
some slight sketches drawn with black lead while in cus- 
tody, requested Rubens to furnish him with materials; for 
painting. Brouwer chose for his subject a groupe of sol- 
diers playing at cards in a corner of the prison ; and when 
the picture was finished, the duke himself was astonished, 
and Rubens, when lie saw it, offered for it the sum of 600 
guilders. The duke, however, retained it, and gave the 
painter a much larger sum. Upon this, Rubens procured 
his release, and received him into his house ; but, unin- 
fluenced by gratitude to his benefactor, he stole away, and 
returned to the scenes of low debauch, to which he had 
been formerly accustomed* Being reduced to the neces- 
sity of flying from justice, he took refuge in France ; and, 
having wandered through several towns, he was at length 
constrained by indigence to return to Antwerp, where he 
was taken ill, and obliged to seek relief in an hospital ; and 
in this asylum of self-procured poverty and distress he died 
in his 32d year. Rubens lamented his death, and procured 
for him an honourable interment in the church of the Car- 
melites. 

Such were the talents of Brouwer, that, in the course of 
p, dissipated life, he attained to distinguished excellence iu 
the style of pointing which he adopted. His subjects were 
taken from low life, and copied after nature ; such as 
droll conversations, feasts, taverns, drunken quarrels, boors 
playing and disputing at cards, or surgeons dressing the 
>vounded. His expression, however, is so lively and cha- 
racteristic ; the management of bia colours so surprising ; 
and truth was united with exquisite high finishing, correct* 
ness of drawing, and wonderful transparence, to such a 
degree, that his paintings are more valuable, and afford 
higher prices, than many works of the mos,t eminent ma&r 
ters. Some of his best works are found at Dusseldorp. His 
drawings are dispersed in the various cabinets of Europe* 
Several of his designs have been engraved ; and we have 
some few etchings by himself of subjects usually repre- 



BROWEB. » 

rented ia bis pictures, which are signed with the initials of 
his name, H. B. ; Adrian being spelled with an H. ' 

BROWER (Christopher), a learned Jesuit, was born 
at Arnheim in 1559, and entered among the Jesuits at Co-* 
logne ill 1580, among whom he was distinguished for his 
talents. He taught philosophy at Treves, was afterwards 
rector of the college of Fulde, and chiefly employed at his 
leisure hours in composing his works, which procured him 
great reputation, and the esteem of many men of learning, 
especially cardinal fiaronius, who often mentions Brower in 
his annals of the church, with high praise. He died at 
Treves June 2, 1617. His writings are, 1. An edition of 
" Venaotius Fortunatus," with notes and additions, Co- 
logne, 1624, 4to. 2. " Scholia on the poems of Rabanus 
Maurus," in vol. VI. of the works of Maurus. 3. " Anti- 
quitatea Foldenses," 1612, 4 to. 4. " Sidera illustrium et 
S. S. . Virorum qui Germaniam rebus gestis ornarunt," 
Mentz, 1616, 4to t 5. " Historia Episcoporum Trevereu- 
sium, &c." Cologne, 1626. He had also a principal hand 
in the u Antiquities and Annals of Treves, 9 ' 1626, £ vols, 
folio, and reprinted 1670; but some antiquaries are of 
opinion that in his anxiety to give correct copies of certain 
ancient documents, he took liberties with the originals 
which tend to lessen the authority of his transcripts. • 

BROWN (James), an English traveller and scholar, the 
son of James Brown, M. D. (who died Nov. 24, 1733), was 
born at Kelso, in the shire of Roxburgh, in Scotland, May 
23, 1709, and was educated under Dr. Freind at Westmin- 
ster-school, where he made great proficiency in the Latin 
and Greek .classics. In the latter end of 1722, he went 
with his father to Constantinople, and having a great apti- 
tude for the learning of languages, acquired a competent 
knowledge of the Turkish, vulgar Greek, and Italian ; and 
on his return home in 1725, made himself master of the 
Spanish tongue. . About the year 1732, he first started the 
idea of a very useful book in the mercantile world, although 
not deserving a place in any literary class, " The Directory," 
-or list of principal traders in London ; and having taken 
some pains to lay the foundation of it, he gave it to the 
late Mr. Henry Kent, printer in Finch-lane, Corn bill, who 
continued it from year to year, aud acquired an estate by it. 

1 Argenville, vol. III. — Descamps* voL II.— Pilkington.-— Strutt, 
* Moreri.— -Foppen Bibl. Belg. 



86 BROWN. 

In 1741, Mr. Brown entered into an agreement with 
twenty-four of the principal merchants of London, mem- 
bers of the Russia Company, as their chief agent or factor, 
for the purpose of carrying on a trade, through Russia, to 
and from Persia, and he sailed for Riga Sept, 29. Thence 
he passed through Russia, down the Volga to Astracan, and 
sailed along the Caspian sea to Reshd in Persia, where he 
established a factory, in which he continued near four years. 
During this time, he travelled in state to the camp of 
Nadir Shah, commonly known by the name of Kouli Khan, 
with a letter which had been transmitted to him from the 
late George II. to that monarch. While he resided in this 
country, he applied himself much to the study of that lan- 
guage, and made such pro&ciency in it that, after his re- 
turn home, he compiled a very copious " Persian Dic- 
tionary and Grammar," with many curious specimens of 
their writing, which is yet in manuscript. But not being * 
satisfied with the conduct of some of the merchants in Lon- 
don, and being sensible of the dangers that the factory was 
constantly exposed to from the unsettled and tyrannical 
nature of the government of Persia, be resigned his charge 
to the gentlemen who were appointed to succeed him, re- 
turned to London Dec. 25, 1746, and lived to be the last 
survivor of all the persons concerned in the establishment 
of that trade, having outlived his old friend Mr. Jonas 
Han way above two years. In May 1787, he was visited 
with a slight paralytic stroke, all the alarming effects of 
which very speedily vanished, and he retained his wonted 
health and chearfulness till within four days of his death, 
when a second and more severe stroke proved fatal' Nov. 
30, 1788. He died at his house at Stoke Ne win gton; 
where he had been an inhabitant since 1734, and was suc- 
ceeded by his worthy son James Brown, esq. F. S. A r . now 
of St. Alban's. Mr. Lysons informs us that the elder Mr; 
Brown published also a translation of two " Orations of 
Isocrates" without his name. He was a man of the strictest 
integrity, unaffected piety, and exalted, but unostenta- 
tious benevolence ; of an even, placid, chearful temper, 
. which he maintained to the last, and which contributed to 
lengthen his days. Few men were ever more generally 
esteemed in life, or more respectfully spoken of after death 
by all who knew him. l 

* Gent. Maf. 1788.— Lysont's Environs, vol III. 



BROWN. *7 

BROWN (John), an ingenious English writer, descend- 
ed From the Browns of Colstown near Haddington in Scot- 
land, was born in Northumberland, Nov. 5, 1715, at Roth- 
bury, of which place his father was curate, but removed 
almost immediately after to the vicarage of Wigton in 
Cumberland, where, at a grammar-school, he received the 
first part of his education ; and was thence removed, May 
8, 1732, to St. John's college in Cambridge. He remained 
here, till in 1735 he took the degree of B. A. then returned 
to Wigton, and soon after went into orders. His first set* 
tlement was in Carlisle, being chosen a minor canon and 
lecturer in the cathedral there. This situation he after- 
wards resigned, on being reproved for omitting the Atha-> 
nasian creed, which it is said was merely accidental. Hid 
pride, however, was hurt, and next Sunday he read the 
creed, out of course, and immediately after resigned. In 
1739 he took a M. A. degree at Cambridge. In the rebel- 
lion of 1745, he acted as a volunteer at the siege of Car- 
lisle, and behaved himself with great intrepidity ; and, after 
the defeat of the rebels, when some of them were tried at 
Carlisle in 1746, he preached two excellent sermons in the 
cathedral, " on the mutual connection between religious 
truth and civil freedom ; and between superstition, tyranny, 
irreligion, and licentiousness." These are to be found in 
the volume of hisisermons. 

Thus distinguished, he fell under the notice of Dr. 
Osbaldeston ; who, when raised to the see of Carlisle, made 
him one of his chaplains : he had before obtained for him. 
from the chapter of Carlisle the living of Moreland in 
Westmoreland. It is probably about this time that he wrote 
his poem- entitled "Honour;" to shew, that true honour 
can only be founded in virtue : it was inscribed to lord' 
Lopsdale. His next poetical production, though not im- 
mediately published, was his " Essay on Satire," in three 
parts, afterwards addressed to Dr. Warburton, who intro- 
duced him to Mr. Allen of Prior Park near Bath. While 
at Mr. Allen's he preached at Bath, April 22, 1750, a ser-i 
mon for promoting the subscription towards the general 
hospital in that city, entitled " On the pursuit of false 
pleasure, and the mischiefs of immoderate gaming ;'* and 
there was prefixed to it, when published, the following 
advertisement: "In justice to the magistrates of ihe city 
of Bath, it is thought proper to inform the reader, that 
the public gaming-tables were by them suppressed there, 

Vol.. VII. H 



$8 BROWN. 

soon after the preaching of this sermon." The year after, 
appeared the " Essay on Satire," prefixed to the second 
volume of Pope's Works by Warburton ; with which it still 
continues to be printed, as well as in Dodsley's collection. 

Brown now began to make no small figure as a writer ; 
and in 1751, published his " Essays on Shaftesbury's Cha- 
racteristics," 8vo, a work written with elegance and spirit, 
a'ud so applauded as to be printed a fifth time in 1 764. 
This was suggested to him by Warburtou, and to Warbur- 
ton by Pope, who told Warburton that to his knowledge 
the Characteristics had done more barm to revealed reli- 
gion in England than all the works of infidelity put toge- 
ther. He is imagined to have had a principal hand in 
another book, published also the same year, and called 
" An essay on musical expression ;" though the avowed 
author was Mr. Charles Avison. (See Avison.) In 1754* 
he printed a sermon, " On the use and abuse of externals 
in religion : ppeached before the bishop of Carlisle, at the 
consecration of St. James's church in Whitehaven, and .soon 
after he was promoted to Great Horkesley in Essex ; a liv- 
ing conferred upon him by the late earl of Hardwicke. His 
next appearance was as a dramatic writer. In 1755, hi* 
tragedy " Bajrbarossa," was produced upon the stage, and 
afterwards his " Athelstan" in 1756. These tragedies 
were acted with considerable success, under the manage- 
ment of Garrick ; and the former long remained what is 
called a stock- piece, notwithstanding many critical objec- 
tions offered to it in the publications of the time*. 

Our author had taken his doctor of divinity's degree in 
1755. In 1757, came out his famous work, " An Estimate 
of the manners and principles of the times," 8vo ; of which 
seven editions were printed in little more than a year, and 
it was perhaps as extravagantly applauded, and as extra- 
vagantly censured, as any book that was ever written. The 
design of it was to show, that " a vain, luxurious, and 
«elfish effeminacy, in the higher ranks of life, marked the 
character of the age; and to point out the effects and 
sources of this effeminacy." And it must be owned, that, 
in the prosecution of it, the author has given abundant 
proofs of great discernment and solidity of judgment, a 

* " I am grieved that either these < clergyman in these times, to make 
unrewarding times, or his love of connexions with players." Warburtou'^ 
poetcy, or his love of money, should Letters, Jan. 31, 1755-6. 
iave made him overlook the duty of a 



BROWN, 9$ 

deep insight into human nature, an extensive knowledge 
of the world ; and that he has marked the peculiar features 
of the times with great justness and accuracy. The great 
objection was, that a spirit of self-importance, dogmatical - 
ness, and oftentimes arrogance, mixed itself in what he 
says ; and this certainly did more towards sharpening the 
pens of his numerous adversaries, and raised more disgust 
and offence at him, than the matter objected to in his work, 
for it may be added that those who wrote against him were 
not men of the first rank in literature, and could have done 
little against him without the aid of those personalities 
which arise from the temper of an author. In 1758 he 
published a second volume of the Estimate, &c. and* 
afterwards, " An explanatory defence of it, &c." 

Between the first and second volume of the Estimate, he 
republished Dr. Walker's " Diary of the Siege of London- 
derry ;" with a preface, pointing out the useful purposes 
to which the perusal of it might be applied. He was, about 
this time, presented by the bishop of Carlisle, Dr. Osbal- 
deston, to the vicarage of St. Nicholas in Newcastle upon 
Tyne, resigning Great Horkesley in Essex ; and was mad$ 
one Of the chaplains in ordinary to his present majesty. 
These were all the preferments our author ever received ; 
and, as this was supposed to be no small mortification to a 
man of Dr. Brown's high spirit, so it was probably this 
high spirit which was the cause of it; for such was bis tem- 
per that he never could preserve his friends longj and he 
had before this time quarrelled with Warburton and lord 
Hardwicke. In 1760 he published an additional dialogue 
of the dead, between " Pericles and Aristides," being a 
sequel to a dialogue of lord Lyttelton' s between " Pericles 
and Cosmo." This is supposed by some to have been de- 
signed as a vindication of Mr. Pitt's political character, 
against some hints of disapprobation by lord Lyttelton; 
while others have not excluded a private motive of resent- 
ment. It is said that lord Lyttelton in a numerous and 
mixed company neglected to take notice of our author in 
so respectful a manner as he thought he deserved ; and in 
revenge, weak enough certainly, he composed the dia- 
logue. His next publication was "The Cure of Saul," a 
sacred ode ; which was followed the same year by a " Dis* 
sertation on the rise, union, and power, the progression*, 
separations, and corruptions of poetry and music," 4to» 
This is a pleasing performance, displays great ingenuity, 

H 2 



106 BROWN, 

and* though not without mistakes, very instructing as tvefl 
as amusing. " Observations" were printed upon it by an 
anonymous writer, and Dr. Brown defended himself in "Re- 
marks." He published in 8vo, 1764, the " History of the 
rise and progress of Poetry through its several species :'* 
being the substance of the above work concerning poetry 
only, fQr the benefit of classical readers not knowing in 
music. The same year, he printed a volume of "Ser- 
mons," most of which had been printed separately; and in 
1765, "Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness, and Fac- 
tion ;" a piece, drawn up with great parade, and assuming 
a scientific form, with an intention to censure the op- 
posers of administration at that time. A sermon on the* 
" Female character and education," preached the 16th of 
May, 1765, before the guardians of the asylum for deserted 
female orphans. 

His last publication, in 1766, was a " Letter to the rev. 
Dr. Lowfrb," occasioned by his late letter to the right rev. 
author of the " Divine Legation of Moses." Dr. Lowth 
had pointed at Dr. Brown, as one of the extravagant flat- 
terers and creatures of Warburton ; and Dr. Brown defend- 
ed himself against the imputation, as an attack upon his 
moral character. To do him justice, he had a spirit too 
#trong and independent, to bend to that literary subjection 
which the author of the Divine Legation expected from his 
followers. He insisted upon the prerogative of his own 
opinion ; to assent and dissent, whenever he saw cause, in 
the most unreserved manner : and this was to Dr. Brown, 
as it was to many others, the cause of misunderstanding 
with Warburton. Besides the works mentioned, he pub- 
lished a poem on " Liberty," and some anonymous 
pamphlets. At the end of his later writings, he advertised 
an intention of publishing "Principles of Christian Legisla- 
tion," but was prevented by death. He ordered, however, 
by his will, that the work should be published after his de- 
cease * ; but it was left too imperfect for that purpose. 
The last memorable circumstance of his life was his in- 
tended expedition to Russia. While Dr. Dumaresque re- 

• The reason of this delay having imperfect for publication, and that a 

fceen somewhat illiberally conjectured satisfactory apology was sent to the 

iin the last edition of our Dictionary, editors of the Biog. Britannica, who* 

it is but justice to one of his executors in its place,, substituted a paragraph 

to refer «ur readers to his letter in the of their own, not quite so well founded. 

dent. Mag. vol. LXI. p. 995, in which See al&o the plan of the work, vok 

they will find that the work was left too LXU. p, 9. 



BROWN, *0i 

*ided in Russia, 1765, whither, having been chaplain to 
our factory at St. Petersburg from 1747 to 1762, he had 
been invited the year before by the empress, to assist in 
the regulation of several schools she, was about to estab- 
lish; a correspondent in England suggested the idea tQ 
htm of communicating the affair to Dr. Brown, as a pro- 
per person to consult with, because he had published soma 
jgermons upon education. This brought on a correspond- 
ence between Dr. Dumaresque and Dr. Brown ; the result 
of which, being communicated to the prime minister at 
St. Petersburg, was followed by an invitation from the em- 
press to Dr. Brown also. Dr. Brown, acquainting the Rus* 
sian court with his design of complying with the empress' * 
Invitation, received an answer from the minister, signify- 
ing how pleased her imperial majesty was with his inten- 
tion, and informing him, that she had ordered to be re- 
mitted to him, by her minister in London, 1000/. in order 
to defray the expences of his journey. All the letters 
which passed, the plans which were drawn by Dr. Brown, 
and, in short, every thing relating to this affair, may be 
seen at large under his article in the " Biographia Britan- 
nic a," as communicated to the author of it by Dr. Duma* 
resque. 

In consequence of the above proceedings, while he was 
ardently preparing for his journey, and almost on the point 
of setting out for St. Petersburg, the gout and rheumatism, 
to which he was subject, returned upon him with violence, 
and put a stop to the affair for the present, to his no small 
disappointment. This disappointment concurring with his 
ill state of health, was followed by a dejection of spirits, 
which terminated in his putting an end to his life, at his 
lodgings in Pall-mall, Sept 23, 1766, in his 51st year. 
He cut the jugular vein with a razor, and died immediately. 
He had, it seems, a constitutional tendency to insanity, and 
from his early life had been subject at times to disorders in 
the brain, at least to melancholy in its excess ; of which he 
used to complain to his friends, and to " express t\is fears, 
that one time or another some ready mischief might present 
itself to him, at a time when be was wholly deprived of 1 his 
reason." 

Dr. Brown was a man of uncommon ingenuity, but un- 
fortunately tinctured with an undue degree of self-opinion, 
and perhaps the bias of his mind to insanity will assign this 
best cause, as well as form the best excuse, for this. H* 



102 BROWN. 

^genius was extensive ;' for, besides bis being so elegant a 
prose writer in various kinds of composition, he was a poet, 
a musician, and a painter. His learning does not, how- 
ever, appear to have been equal to his genius. His inven- 
tion was, indeed > inexhaustible; and hence he was led to 
form magnificent plans, the execution of which required a 
greater depth of erudition than he was possessed of. In di- 
vinity, properly so called, as including an extensive know- 
ledge of the controverted points of theology, and a critical 
Acquaintance with the Scriptures, he was not deeply con- 
versant. All we can gather from his sermons is, that his 
ideas were liberal, and that he did not lay much stress on 
ihp disputed doctrines of Christianity. His temper, we 
are told, was suspicious, and sometimes threw him into dis- 
agreeable altercations with his friends ; but this arose, in a 
great measure, if not entirely, from the constitutional' dis- 
order described above, a very suspicious turn of mind Be- 
ing one of the surest prognostics of lunacy. He has been 
charged with shifting about too speedily, with a view to 
preferment; and it was thought, that his " Thoughts on 
Civil Liberty, Licentiousness, and Faction," seemed to 
have something of this appearance. He, However, in that 
performance endeavoured to remove the objection, by ob- 
serving, that, if he had indirectly censured those whom he 
had formerly applauded, he never was attached to men, but 
measures ; and that, if he had questioned the conduct of 
those only who were then out of power, he had heretofore 
questioned their conduct with the same freedom, when in 
the fulness of their power. Upon the whole, Dr. Brown's 
defects, which chiefly arose from a too sanguine tempera- 
ment of constitution, were compensated by many excel- 
lencies and virtues. With respect to his writings, they 
are all of them elegant. Even those which are of a more 
temporary nature may continue to be read with pleasure, 
as containing a variety of curious observations ; and in his 
Estimate are many of those unanswerable truths that can 
never be unseasonable or unprofitable. * 

BROWN (John), a Scotch artist, the Son of a gold* 
"Bmith and watchmaker, was born in 1752 at Edinburgh, 
and was early destined to take up the profession of a pain- 
ter. He travelled into Italy in 1771, and during the 

1 Biog. Brit. — Gent Mag. vol LXI. and LXH. — Warburton's Letters, 4to 

edit p. 26, 58, 124, 133, J52, 188, 2Q4, 22}, 238,. 240, 282, 



BROWN. 103 

course of ten years residerice there, the pencil afcd crayon 
were ever in his band, and the sublime thoughts of Ra- 
phael and Michael Angelo ever in his imagination. By 
continual practice he obtained a correctness and elegance 
of contour, rarely surpassed by any British artist, but be 
unfortunately neglected the mechanism of the pallet till 
his taste was so refined that Titian, and Murillo, and Cor- 
reggio made his heart to sink within him when he touched 
the canvass. When he attempted to lay in his colours^ 
the admirable correctness of his contour was lost, and he 
had not self-sufficiency to persevere till it should be re- 
covered in that tender evanescent outline which is so dif- 
ficult to be attained even by the most eminent painters. 
At Rome he met with sir William Young and Mr. Townley ; 
who, pleased with some very beautiful drawings done by 
him in pen and ink, took him with them, as a draftsman, 
into Sicily. Of the antiquities of this celebrated island he 
took several very fine views in pen and ink, exquisitely 
finished, yet still preserving the character and spirit of the 
buildings he intended to represent. He returned some 
years afterwards from Italy to his native town, where he 
was much belbved and esteemed, his conversation being 
extremely acute and entertaining on most subjects, but 
peculiarly so on those of art ; and his knowledge of music 
being very great, and his taste in it extremely just and 
refined. Lord Monboddo gave hinp a general invitation to 
his elegaht and convivial table, and employed him in 
making several drawings in pencil for him. Mr. Brown, 
however, in 1786, came to London, and was caressed by 
scholars and men of taste in that metropolis, where he was 
very much employed as a painter of small portraits in black 
lead pencil, which were always correctly drawn, and ex- 
hibited, with a picturesque fidelity, the features and cha- 
racter of the person who sat to him. 

Mr. Brown was not only known as an exquisite drafts- 
man, he was also a good philosopher, a sound scholar, and 
endowed with a just and refined taste in all the liberal and 
polite arts, and a man of consummate worth and integrity. 
Soon after his death his " Letters on the Poetry and Music 
of the Italian Opera," 12mo, were published. They were 
originally written to his friend lord Monboddo, who wished 
to have Mr. Brown's opinion on those subjects, which have 
so intimate a connection with his work on the Origin and 
Progress of Language ; and who was 'so pleased with the 



i04 BROW N. 

style and observations contained in them, that he wrote 
an introduction, which was published with them, in one 
volume, I2Q10, 1789, for the benefit of his widow. The 
letters, written with great elegance and perspicuity, are 
certainly the production of a strong and fervid mind, ac- 
quainted with the subject ; and must be useful to most of 
the frequenters of the Italian opera, by enabling them to 
understand the reasons on which the pleasure they receive 
at that musical performance is founded, a knowledge in 
which they are generally very deficient. Not being written 
for publication, they have that spirit and simplicity which 
every man of genius diffuses through any subject which he 
communicates in confidence, and which he is but too apt 
to refine away when he sits down to compose a work for 
the public. Lord Monboddo, in the fourth volume of the 
Origin and Progress of Language, speaking of Mr. Brown, 
says, " The account that I have given of the Italian lan- 
guage is taken from one who resided above ten years in 
Italy ; and who, besides understanding the language per- 
fectly, is more learned in the Italian arts of painting, 
sculpture, music, and poetry, than any man I ever met 
with. His natural good taste he has improved by the study 
of the monuments of ancient art, to be seen at Rome and 
Florence ; and as beauty in all the arts is pretty much the 
same, consisting of grandeur and simplicity, variety, de- 
corum, and a suitableness to the subject, I think he is a 
good judge of language, and of writing, as well as of 
painting, sculpture, and music." A very well- written cha- 
racter in Latin, by an advocate of Edinburgh, is appended 
to the Letters. Mr. Brown left behind him several very 
highly-finished portraits in pencil, and many very exqui- 
site sketches in pencil and in pen and ink, which he had 
taken of persons and of places in Italy ; particularly a book 
of studies of heads, taken from the life, an inestimable 
treasure to any history painter, as a common-place book 
for his pictures, the heads it contained being all of them 
Italian ones, of great expression, or of high character. 
He was so enraptured with his art, and so assiduous in the 
pursuit of it, that he suffered no countenance of beauty, 
grace, dignity, or expression, to pass him unnoticed ; and 
to be enabled to possess merely a sketch for himself, of 
any subject that struck his fancy, he would make a present 
of a high-finished drawing to the person who permitted his 
bead to be taken by him. The characteristics of his hand * 



BROWN. 10* 

were delicacy, correctness, and taste, as the drawings he 
made from many of Mr. Townley's best statues very plainly 
evince. Of his mind, the leading features were acuteness, 
liberality, and sensibility, joined to a character firm, vi- 
gorous, and energetic. The last efforts of this ingenious 
artist were employed in making two very exquisite draw- 
ings', the one from Mr. Townley's celebrated bust of Ho- 
mer, the other from a fine original bust of Pope, supposed 
to have been the work of Rysbrac. From these drawings 
two very beautiful engravings have been made by Mr. Bar- 
tolozzi and his pupil Mr. Bovi. After some stay in Lon- 
don, his health, which had never been robust, yielded to 
extraordinary application, and he was forced to try a sea- 
voyage, and return on a visit to Edinburgh, to settle his 
father's affairs, who was then dead, having been some time 
before in a state of imbecility. On the passage from 
London to Leith, he was somehow neglected as he lay 
sick on his hammock, and was on the point of death 
when he arrived at Leith. With much difficulty he was 
brought up to Edinburgh, and laid in the bed of his friend 
Runciman, the artist, who had died not long before in the 
same place. Here he died, Sept. 5, 1787. His portrait 
with Runciman, disputing about a passage in Shakspeare's 
Tempest, is in the gallery at Dryburgh abbey. This was 
the joint production of Brown and Runciman before the 
death of the latter in 1784. * 

BROWN (John), a clergyman of the church of Scot- 
land, who long kept an academy for the education of 
young men for the ministry among the class called Se- 
ceders in that country^ was born in 1722, in a village 
called Kerpoo, in the county of Perth. His *parents died 
when he was very young, leaving him almost destitute, 
but by some means he contrived to obtain books, if not 
regular education, and by dint of perseverance acquired a 
considerable knowledge of Latin, Greek* and Hebrew, 
with which last he was critically conversant. H# could 
also read and translate the French, Italian, German, Ara- 
bic, Persian, Syriac, and Ethiopic, but his favourite stu- 
^ dies were divinity, and history both ecclesiastical and 

civil. His principles being Calvinistic, his reading was 
much confined to writers of that stamp, but he appears to 

1 From the preceding edition of this Dictionary, with additions from Dr, An* 
Arson's " Bee," vof. XV, 



106 BROW N. 

have studied every controversy in which the church has 
been involved, with much attention. At what time he was 
ordained, does not appear, but his extensive learning 
pointed him out to the associate synod, or synod of se- 
ceders, as a fit person to be their professor of divinity, 
and train up young men, who had had a previous educa- 
tion, for the office of the ministry within their pale. His 
residence was at Haddington, where he was preacher to a 
numerous congregation of the seceders. At one time he 
received a^ pressing invitation from the Dutch church in 
the province of New York, to be their tutor in divinity, 
which he declined. He died June 19, 1787. His princi- 
pal works are, 1. An edition of the Bible, called " The 
Self-interpreting Bible/' from its marginal references, 
which are far more copious than in any other edition, Lon- 
don, 1791,2 vols. 4to, and since reprinted. 2. " Dictionary 
of the Bible, on the plan of Calmet, but principally adapted 
to common readers; often reprinted, 2 vols. Svo. 3. "Ex- 
plication of Scripture Metaphors," 1 2mo. 4. " History of 
the Seceders," eighth edition, 1802, 12mo. 5. "The 
Christian Student and Pastor," 1781, an abridgment of the 
Lives of Pious Men. 6. " Letters on the Government of 
the Christian Church." 7. " General History of the 
Church," 1771, 2 vols. l2mo, a very useful compendium 
of church history, partly on the plah of Mosheim, or 
perhaps rather of Lampe. After his death appeared a vo- 
lume entitled " Select Remains," with some account of 
his life. l 

BROWN (John), M. D. author of what has been called 
the Brunonian system in medicine, was born in the parish 
of Buncle, ih the county of Berwick, in the year 1735, of 
parents in a mean situation in life, but, in common with 
the children of other villagers in Scotland, he received his 
education at a grammar-school. As his mind was much 
above the ra»k he was born in, his progress in literature 
was pipportionably superior to the rest of his school-fel- 
lows. He there imbibed a taste for letters, so that when 
he was afterwards put apprentice to a weaver, instead of 
attending to his business, his whole mind was bent on pro- 
curing books, which he read with* great eagerness. Find- 
ing this disposition could not be conquered, his father 
took him from thfe loom, and sent him to the grammar- 

* Select Remains, &c. 



B B O W N. i07 

school at D arise, where, under the tuition of Mr. Cruick- 
shanks, he made such progress that he was soon regarded 
*s a prodigy. He read all the Latin classics with the 
greatest facility, and was no mean prbficieot in the know- 
ledge of the Greek language. " His habits," we are told, 
,t€ were sober, he was of a religious turn, and was so 
-strongly attached to the sect of Seceders, or Whigs as they 
are called in Scotland, in which he had been bred, that he 
would have thought his salvation hazarded, if he had at- 
tended the meetings of the established church. He aspired 
to be a preacher of a purer religion." An accident, how- 
ever, disgusted him with this society, before he was of an, 
age to be chosen a pastor, for which it appears he was in- 
tended. Having been prevailed on by some of his school- 
fellows to attend divine service at the parish church of 
Dunse, he was summoned before the session of the se- 
ceding congregation to ansvrer for this offence ; but his 
high spirit not brooking to make an apology, to avoid the 
censures of his brethren, and the ignominy of being, ex- 
pelled their community, he abdicated his principles, and 
professed himself a member of the established church. 
As his talents for literature were well known, he was 
taken, at the age of twenty, to the house of a gentleman 
in the neighbourhood of Dunse, as tutor to his son. Here 
he did not long reside, but went the same year, 1755, to 
Edinburgh, where he applied to the study of divinity, in 
which he proceeded so far as to deliver, in the public hall, 
a discourse upon a prescribed portion of scripture, the 
usual step preliminary to ordination. But here his theo- 
logical studies appear to have ended, and he suddenly left 
Edinburgh, returned to Dunse, and officiated* as an usher 
in the school where he had been educated. He now ex- 
hibited himself as a free-liver and free-thinker, his dis* 
course and manners being equally licentious and irregular, 
which accounts for his dereliction of the study of theology. 
At Dunse he continued about a year. During this time, 
a vacancy happening in one of the classes in the high 
school at Edinburgh, Brown appeared as a candidate, but 
was not successful. Soon after he was applied to by a 
student in medicine, at Edinburgh, Jo put his inaugural, 
thesis into Latin. This he performed in so superior a 
manner, that it gained him great reputation ; it opened to 
him a path which he had not probably before thought of, 
for turning his erudition to profit. On the strength of 'the 



» » 



10* BROWN. 

character procured him by this performance, he returned 
to Edinburgh, and determined to apply to the study of 
medicine. " He bad now," he said, " discovered his 
strength, and was afabitious of riding in his carriage as a 
physician." At the opening of the session he addressed 
Latin letters to each of the professors, who readily gave 
him tickets. of admission to their lectures, which be attended 
diligently for several years ; in the interim, teaching Latin 
to such of the pupils, as applied, and assisting them in 
writing their theses, or turning them into Latin. The 
price, when he composed the thesis, was ten guineas; 
when he translated their compositions into Latin, live. If 
he had been now prudent, or had not indulged in the most 
" destructive excesses, he might, it is probable, in a fevr 
years, have attained the eminence he promised himself; 
but he marred all by his intemperance. In no long time 
after this, his constitution, which had been hardy and ro- 
bust, became debilitated, and he bad the face and appear- 
ance of a worn-out debauchee. His bad habits had not, 
however, prevented his getting the friendship or assistance 
of Dr. Cullen, who, desirous of availing himself of his 
talents, employed him as a tutor to his sons, and made 
use of him as an assistant in his lectures ; Brown repeating 
to his pupils in the evening, the lecture they had heard in 
the morning, and explaining to them such parts as were 
abstruse and difficult. In 1765 he married, and took a 
house, which was soon filled with boarders.; but, conti- 
nuing his improvident course, he became a bankrupt at the 
end of three or four years. He now became a candidate 
for one of the medical chairs, but failed ; and as he attri- 
buted his niis$ing this promotion to Dr. Cullen, he very un- 
advisedly broke off his connection with him, and became the 
declared enemy to him and his system ; which he had always 
before strenuously defended. This probably determined him 
to form, a new^ystem of medicine, doubtless meaning to an- 
nihilate that of his former patron. As he had read but few 
medical books, and was but little versed in practice, his 
theory must have been rather the result of contemplation 
than of experience. That in forming it, he was influenced 
by his attachment to spirituous liquors, seems probable 
from internal evidence, and from the effects he attributed 
to them of diminishing the number as well as the severity 
of the fits of the gout, under which he suffered. He always 
found them more severe and frequent/ he says, when. 



BROWN. 109 

be lived abstemiously. One of his pupils informed Dr; 
Beddoes, '" that he was used, before he began to read his 
lecture, to take fifty drops of laudanum in a glass of 
whisky ; repeating the dose four or five times during the 
lecture. Between the effects of these stimulants, and 
voluntary exertions, he soon waxed warm, and by degrees 
his imagination was exalted into phrenzy." His intention 
seems to have been to simplify medicine, and to render 
the knowledge of it easily attainable, without the labour 
of studying other authors. All general or universal dis- 
eases were therefore reduced by him to two great families 
or classes, the sthenic and the asthenic ; the former de- 
pending upon excess, the latter upon deficiency of ex- 
citing power. The former were to be removed by debili- 
tating, the latter by stimulant medicines, of which the 
most valuable and powerful are wine, brandy, and opium. 
As asthenic diseases are more numerous, and occur mucb 
more frequently than those from an opposite cause, his 
opportunities of calling in the aid of these powerful stimuli 
were proportionately numerous. " Spasmodic and con- 
vulsive disorders, and even hemorrhages," he says, "werei 
found to proceed from debility ; and wine, and brandy r 
which had been thought hurtful in these diseases, he found 
the most powerful of all remedies in removing them." 
When he had completed his plan, he published his theoiy 
or system, under the title of " Elementa Medicinae," from 
his preface to which the preceding quotations have been 
principally taken. Though hejiad been eleven or twelve 
years at Edinburgh, he had not taken his degree of doctor; 
and as he was now at variance with all the medical pro- 
fessors, not thinking it prudent to offer himself there, he 
went to St. Andrew' s, where he was readily admitted to 
that honour. He now' commenced public teacher of me- 
dicine, making his " Elementa 9 ' his text book ; and con- 
vinced, as it seems, of the soundness of his doctrine, he 
exultingly demands (preface to a new edition of the trans- 
lation of his " Elementa, 7 ' by Dr. Beddoes), whether the 
medical art, hitherto conjectural, incoherent, and in the 
great body of its doctrines false, was not at last reduced to 
a science of demonstration, which might be called the 
science of life ? His method in giving*his lectures was, first 
to translate the text book, sentence by sentence, and then 
to expatiate upon the passage. The novelty of the doc- 
trine procured him at first a pretty numerous class of pupils; 



110 BROWN* 

but as he was irregular in his attendance, and his habits 
of drinking increased upon him, they were soon reduced 
in number, and he became so involved in his circum- 
stances, that it became necessary for him to quit Edin- 
burgh ; he therefore came to London in the autumn of the 
year 1786. Here, for a time, he was received with fa- 
vour, but his irregularities in living increasing upon him, 
he came to his lodgings, in the evening of the 8th of Oc- 
tober, in 1788, intoxicated, and taking, as it was his 
custom, a large dose of laudanum, he died in the course 
of the night, before he had entered on his career of lec- 
turing, for which he was making preparations. He had 
the preceding year published " Observations on the Old 
t Systems of Physic," as a prelude to the introduction of his 
own ; but it was little noticed. His opinions have, how- 
ever, met with patrons in Germany and Italy, as well as 
in this country, and several volumes have been written on 
the subject of them ; but they are now pretty generally, 1 
and deservedly, abandoned. 

In 1796, Dr. Beddoes published an edition of "The 
Elements of Medicine of John Brown, M. D " for the benefit 
of his family, with a biographical preface, from which the 
above account was taken by a learned gentleman for the 
Cyclopaedia.- Perhaps from the same materials, a more 
favourable colouring might »be given, and has been given 
in Dr. Gleig's Supplement to the Encycl. Britannica, but 
we question if any account can be given more consistent 
with truth. * 

BROWN (Lancelot), an eminent horticulturist, and, 
from a word often employed by him in laying out gardens, 
called Capability Brown *, was born at Kirkharle, in North* 
umberland, Aug. 1715. Of his education we have no ac- 
count, but he came early in life to the metropolis, and was 
employed by lord Cobham in improving the grounds at 
Stowe; and afterwards at Richmond, Blenheim, Luton, 
Wimbledon, Nuneham, &c. where he improved orna- 
mental gardening in a very high degree, and approached 
more nearly to nature than his predecessors. In these 
operations he frequently discovered a very highly culti- 
vated taste, and may be said to have led the fashion in 

* There was another garden -surveyor of the same name,, and a contempo- 
rary, who by way of distinction waa called Sense Brown. 

1 Beddoes 1 edit, as above. — Reel's Cyclopaedia. 



BROWN- 111 

horticulture for nearly half a century. He associated also 
with familiarity with many of his noble and opulent em- 
ployers, and realized a handsome fortune. Irk 1770 he 
served the office of high sheriff for the counties of Hun- 
tingdon and Cambridge.' He died suddenly in Hertford- 
street, . May -fair, Feb. 6, 1783, being at that time head 
gardener to his majesty, at Hampton-court. l 

BROWN (Robert), an English divine of the sixteenth 
and beginning of the seventeenth century, from whom the 
sect of the Brownists derived its name, was descended of 
an ancient and worshipful family, says Fuller, (one whereof 
founded a fair hospital in Stamford), and was nearly allied 
to the lord-treasurer Cecil. He was the son of Anthony 
Brown, of Tolthorp, in Rutlandshire, esq. (though bora 
at Northampton, according to Mr. Collier), and grandson 
of Francis Brown, whom king Henry VIII. in the eigh- 
teenth year of his reign, privileged by charter to wear 
his cap in the presence of himself, his heirs, or any of his 
nobles, and not to uncover but at his own pleasure ; 
which charter was confirmed by act of parliament. Robert 
Brown studied divinity at Cambridge, in Corpus Christi 
college, and was afterwards a schoolmaster in South- 
ward He was soon discovered by Dr. Still, master of 
Trinity-college, to have somewhat extraordinary in him 
that would prove a great disturbance to the church. Brown 
soon verified what the doctor foretold, for he not only im- 
bibed Cartwright's opinions, but resolved to refine upon 
his scheme, and to produce something more perfect of his 
own. Accordingly, about the year 1580, he began to in- 
veigh openly against the discipline and ceremonies of the 
church of England, and soon shewed that he' intended to 
gQ much farther than Cartwright had ever done. In his 
discourses the church government was antichristian ; her 
sacraments clogged with superstition; the liturgy had a 
mixture of Popery and Paganism in it ; and the mission of 
the clergy was no better than that of Baal's priests in the 
Old Testament. He first preached at Norwich, in 1581, 
where the Dutch having a numerous congregation, many 
of them inclined to Anabaptism ; and, therefore, being the 
more disposed to entertain any new resembling opinion, 
he made his first essay upon them ; and having made some 
progress, and raised a character for zeal and sanctity, he 

* Gent. Mag. fee. 



118 BROWN. 

then began to infect his own countrymen ; for which pur- 
pose he called in the assistance of one Richard Harrison, a 
country schoolmaster, and they formed churches out of 
both nations, but mostly of the English. He instructed 
his audience that the church of England was no true 
church ; that there was little of Christ's institution in the 
public ministrations, and that all good Christians were 
obliged to separate from those impure assemblies ; that 
their only way was to join him and his disciples, among 
whom all was pure and unexceptionable, evidently in- 
spired by the Spirit of God, and refined from all alloy and 
prophanation. These discourses prevailed on the audi- 
ence; and his disciples, now called Brownists, formed a 
society, and made a total defection from the church, re- 
fusing to join any congregation 1 in any public office of 
worship. Brown being convened before Dr.Freake, bishop 
of Norwich, and other ecclesiastical commissioners, he 
maintained his schism, to justify which he had also written 
a book, and behaved rudely to the court, on which he was 
committed to the custody of the sheriff of Norwich ; but 
his relation, the lord treasurer Burghley, imputing his 
error aud obstinacy to zeal, .rather than malice, interceded 
to have him charitably persuaded out of his opinions, and 
released. To this end he wrote a letter to the bishop of 
Norwich, which procured his enlargement. After this, 
his lordship ordered Brown up to London, and recom- 
mended him to archbishop Whitgift for his instruction and 
counsel, in order to his amendment ; but Brown left the 
kingdom, and settled at Middleburgh in Zealand, where 
he and his followers obtained leave of the states to form a 
church according to their own model, which was drawn in 
a book published by Brown at Middleburgh in 1582, and 
called " A treatise of Reformation, without staying for any 
man." How long he remained at Middleburgh, is not 
precisely known ; but he was in England in 1585, when 
he was cited to appear before archbishop Whitgift, to 
answer to certain matters contained in a book published by 
him, but what this was, we are not informed. The arch- 
bishop, however, by force of reasoning, brought Brown 
> at last to a tolerable compliance with the church of Eng- 
land ; and having dismissed him, the lord treasurer Burgh- 
ley sent him to his father in the country, with a letter to 
recommend hint to his favour and countenance, but from 



BROWN, IIS 

dnothet iettef of the Idrd treasurer's, vve learn that Bfowh's* 
errors had sunk so deep as not to be so easily rooted out i.4 
was imagined'; and that he soon relapsed iftto his former opi- 
nions, knd shewed himself so incorrigible; that his good old 
father resolved to own him for his son no longer than his son 
owned the church of England for his mother \ and Brown 
chusiug rather to part with his aged sire than his n&W schism i 
he was discharged the family. When gentleness was fdiind 
ineffectual, severity was next practised ; and Brown, aftef 
wandering up and down, and enduring great hardships, at 
length went to live at Northampton, where, industriously 
labouring to promote his Sect* Lindsell, bishop of Peterbo- 
rough, sent him a citation to come before him, which Brown 
refused to obey; for which contempt he was excommuni- 
cated. This proved the means of his reformation ; for he waff 
so deeply affected with the solemnity of this censure; that 
he made his submission, moved for absolution, and received 
it ; and from that time continued in the communion of the 
church, though it Was not in his power to close the chasm, 
or heal the wound he had made in it. It was towards the* 
year 1590 that Brown renounced his principles of separa- 
tion, and Was soon after preferred to the rectory of 
Achurch, near Thrapston in Northamptonshire. Fuller 
does not believe that Brown ever formally recanted his 1 
opinions, either by word or writing, as to the main point* 
of his doctrine ; but that his promise of a general compli- 
ance with the church of England, improved by the coun- 
tenance of his patron and kinsman, the earl of Exeter, pre- 
vailed upon the archbishop, and procured this extraor- 
dinary favour for him. He adds, that Brown allowed £ 
salary for one to discharge his cure ; and though he op- 
posed his parishioners in judgment, yet agreed in taking 
their tithes. He was a man of good parts and some learn- 
ing, but was imperious and uncontroulable ; and so far 
from the Sabbatarian strictness afterwards espdtfsed by 
tome of his followers, that he led an idle and dissolute life. 
In a word, says Fuller, he had a wife with whom he never 
lived, and a church in which he never preached, though 
hexeceived the profits thereof: and as all the other scenes 
of his life were stormy and turbulent, so was his end : fot 
the constable of his parish requiring, somewhat roughly^ 
the payment of certain rates, his passion qtoved him to 
blows, of. which the constable complaining to justice St - 
John, he rather inclined to pity than punish him but 
.Vol, VII. I 



114 B R O W N. 

Brown behaved with so much insolence, that be Wis sent 
to Northampton gaol on a feather-bed in a cart, being 
very infirm, and aged above eighty years, where he soon 
after sickened and died, anno 1630, after boasting, " That 
he had been committed to thirty-two prisons, in some . o£ 
which he could not see his hand at noon-day ." He was 
buried in his church of Achurch in Northamptonshire. 

Those who are acquainted with the tenets and practice* 
of some modern sects, will easily recognize in Brown their 
founder. The Brownists equally condemned episcopacy 
and presbytery, as to the jurisdiction of consistories, 
classes, and synods; andj would not join with any other re- 
formed church, because they were not sufficiently assured, 
of the sanctity and probity of its members, holding it an 
impiety to communicate with sinners. Their form of 
church-government was democraticaL ' Such as desired to 
be members of their church made a confession of their 
faith, and signed a covenant obliging themselves to walk, 
together in the order of the gospel. The whole power of 
admitting and excluding members, with the decision of all. 
controversies, was lodged in the brotherhood. Their 
church officers for preaching the word, and taking care of 
the poor, were chosen from among themselves, and sepa* 
rated to their several offices by fasting, prayer, and im- 
position of hands from some of the brethren. They did 
not allow the priesthood to be any distinct order, or to 
give any indelible character ; but as the vote of the brother- 
hood made a man a minister, and gave authority to preach 
the word and administer the sacraments among them ; so 
the same power could discharge hitn from his office, and 
reduce him to a mere layman again. As they maintained 
the bounds of a church to be no greater than what would 
contain as many as could meet together in one place, and 
join in one communion, so the power of their officers was 
prescribed within the same limits. The minister or pastor 
of a church could not administer the eucharist or baptism 
to the children of any but those of his own society. A lay 
brother was allowed the liberty of giving a word of exhor- 
tation to the people ; and it was usual for some of them, 
after sermon, to ask questions, and reason upon the doc 
twines that bad been preached. Until the civil war, they 
were much discouraged in England ; but upon the ruin of 
episcopaoy, they quitted Holland, and came over to England, 
where they began to form churches on their peculiar 



■* * 



H R O W N. Hi 

\ 

, — *• » . ' * 

model /The Presbyterians complained of this as an en- 
eroachifient, and insisted that the Independents should 
come under the Scotch regulation; This the latter refused 
to comply with, and continued a distinct sect, or faction } 
and, during the civil wars, became the most powerful 
party ; and getting to the head of affairs, most of thg 
other sects, which were averse to the Church of England* 
joined with them* and all of them yielded to lose their 
former names, in the general one df Independents. 

The chief of Brown's works is a small thin quarto, printed 
at Middleburgh in 1 582, containing three pieces. The titlg 
of the first is, " A Treatise of Reformation without tarrying 
for any* and of the wickedness of those preachers who will 
not reform themselves ajid their charge, because they will 
tarry till the magistrate command and compel them. By 
me, Robert Brown." " A Treatise upon the 23d chapter 
Of St Matthew* both for an order of studying and hand- 
ling the scriptures, and also for avoiding the popish disor- 
ders, and ungodly communion* of all false Christians, and 
especially of wicked preachers and hirelings." The title 
of the third piece is* " A book which sheweth the life and 
manners of all true Christians, and how unlike they are unto 
Turks and papists, and heathen folk. Also the points and 
parts of all divinity, that is* of the revealed will and word 
of God, are declared by their several definitions and divi- 
sions.* 7 * 

BROWN (TttOMAs), of facetious memory, as Mr. Ad* 
dison says of him, was the son of a considerable farmer o( 
ShifTnal in Shropshire* and educated at Newport-school in 
that county ; from whence he was removed to Christ* 
church in Oxford* where he soon distinguished himself bf 
his uncommon attainments in literature. He had great 
parts and quickness of apprehension, nor does it appear 
that he was wanting in application ; for we are told, that 
he was very well skilled in the Latin, Greek* French* 
Italian, and Spanish languages* even before he was sent to 
Oxford. The irregularities of his life did not suffer him 
however to continue long at the university; but when 
obliged to quit it, instead of returning home to his father* 
he formed a scheme of going to London* in hopes of mak* 
ing ids fortune some way or other there. This scheme did 
oot answer. He was very soon in danger of starving ; upon 

* Bk>g. Brit— Fuller'! and Collier's Ecd. Histories.— -Bfoaheim's dkto.<ft 
deal's PucKa**— Strype't Parker, p. 326.~Strype , i WhitfiVp* 32& 

12 



U6 BROWN. 

• 

which he made interest to be schoolmaster of Kingston 
upon Thames, in which pursuit he succeeded But this 
was a profession very unsuitable to a man of Mi*. Brown's 
turn, and a situation that must needs have been extremely 
disagreeable to him ; and therefore we cannot wonder, 
that be. soon quitted his school, and went again to London ; 
where finding his old companions more delighted with his 
humour, than ready to relieve his necessities, he had re- 
course to his pen, and became an author, and partly a li- 
beller, by profession. He published a great variety of 
pieces, under the names of dialogues, letters, poems, &Cw 
in all which he discovered no small erudition, and a vast 
and exuberant vein of humour : for he was in his writings, 
as in his conversation, always lively and facetious. In the 
mean time he made no other advantage of these produc* 
tions, than what he derived from the booksellers; for 
though they raised his reputation, and made his company 
sought after, yet as he possessed less of the gentleman 
than wits usually do, and more of the scholar, so he was 
not apt to choose his acquaintance by interest, but was 
more solicitous to be recommended to the ingenious who 
might admire, than to the great who might relieve him. 
An anonymous author, who has given the world some ac- 
count of Mr. Brown, says, that though a good-natured 
man, he had one pernicious quality, which was, rather to 
lose his friend than his joke. He had a particular genius 
for satire, and dealt it out liberally whenever he could find 
occasion* He is famed for being the author of a libel, 
fixed one Sunday morning on the doors of Westminster- 
abbey ; and of many others against the clergy and quality* 
He used to treat religion very lightly, and would often 
say, that he understood the world better, than to have the 
imputation of righteousness laid to his charge, yet, upon 
the approach of death, his heart misgave him, as if all was 
not right within, and he began to express sentiments of 
remorse for his past life. 

Towards the latter end of Brown's life, we are informed 
by Mr. Jacob, that he was in favour with the earl of Dor* 
set, who invited him to dinner on a Christmas-day, with 
Dryden, and some other men of genius ; when Brown, to 
jii£ agreeable surprise, found a bank note of 50/. under his 
plate ; and Dryden at the same time was presented with 
another of 100/. Brown died in 1704, and was interred 
in the cloister of Westminster-abbey, near the remains of 



, 



BROWN. 117 

. Mrs. Behn, with whom he was intimate in his life-time. 
His whole works were printed in 1707,, consisting of dia- 
logues, essays, declamations, satires, letters from the dead 
to the living, translations, amusements, &c. in 4 vols. Much 
humour and not a little learning are, as we have already- 
observed, scattered every where throughout them, but 
they are totally destitute of delicacy, and have not been 
reprinted for many years. Dr. Johnson, in his Life of 

, Dryden, very justly says that " Brown was not a man de- 
ficient in literature, nor destitute of fancy ; but he seems to 
have thought it the pinnacle of excellence to be a ' merry 
fellow ;' and therefore laid out his powers upon small jests 
or gross buffoonery, so that his performances have little 
intrinsic value, and were read only while they were recom- 
mended by the novelty of the event that occasioned them. 
What sense or knowledge his works contain is disgraced 
by the garb in which it is exhibited/' * 

BROWN (Ulysses Maximilian de), a celebrated gene- 
r^l of the eighteenth century, was the son of Ulysses, baron 
de Brown, colonel of a regiment of cuirassiers in the ser- 

. vice of the emperors Leopold and Joseph, created in 
1716, by the emperor Charles VI. a count of the holy Ro- 
man empire, his younger brother George receiving the 
like dignity at the same time, who was general of foot, 
counsellor of war, and a colonel of a regiment of infantry, 
under Charles VI. They were of an ancient and noble 
family in Ireland. The subject of the present memoir 
was born at Basle, Oct. 24, 1705. After having passed 
through the lessons of a school at Limerick in Ireland, he 
was called to Hungary at ten years of age, by count 
George de Brown, his uncle, and was present at the fa- 
mous siege of Belgrade in 1717; about the close of the 
year 1723, he became captain in his uncle's regiment, and 
then lieutenant-colonel in 1725. He went to the island of 
Corsica in 1730, with a battalion of his regiment, and con* 
tributed greatly to the capture of Callansana, where he 
received a wound of some consequence in his thigh. He 
was appointed chamberlain to the emperor in 1732, and 
colonel in 1734. He distinguished himself in the war of 
Italy, especially in the battles of Parma and Guastalla, 
and burnt, in presence of the French army, the bridge 
which the marechal de Moailles had thrown across the 

I Cftber's Live*, *©L III,— Atk. Ox. to). ll.—Bieg. JDnuMtifa. 



Hi BR O W tf, 

Adige. Being appointed general in 1736, he favoured, 
the year following, the retreat of the army, by a judicious 
manoeuvre, and saved all the baggage at the memorable 
day of Banjaluca in Bosnia, Aug. 3, 1737. This signal 
piece of service procured him a second regiment of infan- 
try, vacant by the death of count Francis de Wallis. On 
his return to Vienna in 1739, the emperor Charles Vh 
raised him to the dignity of general-fieUUraarechal-lieute- 
nant, and gave him a seat in the Aulic council of war* 
After the dea.th of that prince, the fyng of Prussia having 
entered Silesia, count de Brown, with but a small body of 
troops, disputed with him every foot of ground for the 
space of two months. He commanded in 1741 the infan- 
try of the right wing of the Austrian *rmy at the battle of 
Molvitz ; and, though wounded, made a handsome retreat. 
He then went into Bavaria, where he commanded the van 
of the same army, made himself master of Deckendorf, and 
took much of the enemy's baggage, and forced the French 
to quit the banks of the Danube, which the Austrian arm j 
afterwards passed in perfect safety ; * in commemoration of 
wfciqh, a marble pillar was erected on the spot, with the 
following inscription ; « Theresise Austriacse August® Duce 
Exercitus Ca,rolo Alexandrp Lotharingico, septemdecim 
superatis hostilibus. Villis, captoque Deckendorfio, reni- 
tentibus undis, resistentibus Gallis, Duce Exercitus Iah 
dovico Borbonio Contio, transivit hie Danubium Ulysses 
Maximilianus, S. H, I. Cornea de Brown, Lqcumtenens, 
Campi Marashallus, Die 5° Junii, A. IX 1743" The queen 
of Hungary sent him the same year to Worms, in quality 
of her plenipotentiary to the king of Great Britain : where 
he put the finishing hand to the treaty of alliance be- 
tween the courts of Vienna, London, and Turin, and she 
declared him her actual privy counsellor at her coronation 
qf Bohemia. The count de Brown, in 1744, followed 
prince Lobkovitz into Italy, took the city of Veletri the 
4th of August, notwithstanding the great superiority of the 
enemy in numbers, penetrated into their camp, defeated 
several regiments, and took a great many prisoners. Being 
recalled to Bavaria, he performed several military exploits, 
and returned to Italy in 1746. He drove the Spaniards 
out of the Milanese ; and, having joined the army of the 
prince de Lichtenstein, he commanded the left wing of 
the Austrian troops at the battle of Placentia, the 1 5th of 
June 1746; and routed the right wing of the enemy's 



BROWN. U9 

army, commanded by the marecbal 4e Maillebois. After 
this famous battle, the gaining of which was due to him, he 
commanded in chief the army ordered against the Genoese, 
made himself master of the pass of la Bochetta, though 
defended by 4000 men, and took possession of the city of 
Genoa. Count Brown then went to join the troops of the 
king of Sardinia, and, in conjunction with him, took Mont- 
albano and the territory of Nice. He passed the Var the 
30th of November, in opposition to the French troops*, 
entered Provence, and captured the isles of Saint-Margue- 
rite and Saint- Honorat. He had nearly made himself 
master of all Provence, when the revolution at Genoa and 
the army of the marechal de Belleisle obliged him to make 
that fine retreat which acquired him the admiration of all 
good judges of military tactics. He employed the rest of 
the year 1747 in defending the states of the house of 
Austria in Italy. The empress-queen of Hungary, in re* 
ward of his signal campaigns in Italy, made him governor 
of Transylvania in 1749. In 1752 he had the government 
of the city of Prague, with the general command of the 
troops of that kingdom*; and the king of Poland, elector 
of Saxony, honoured him in 1755 with the order of the 
white eagle. The king of Prussia having invaded Saxony 
in 1756, and attacked Bohemia, count Brown marched 
against him ; he repulsed that prince at the battle of Lo- 
bositz the 1st of October, although he had but 126,800 
men, and the king of Prussia was at the head of at least 
40,000. Within a week after this engagement, he under- 
took that celebrated march into Saxony, for delivering the 
Saxon troops shut up between Pirna and Konigstein : 
an action worthy of the greatest general whether ancient or 
modern. He afterwards obliged the Prussians to retreat 
from Bohemia ; for which service he obtained the , collar 
of the golden fleece* with which he was honoured by 
the empress March 6, 1757. Shortly after this count 
Brown went into Bohemia, where he raised troops with the 
utmost expedition, in order to make head against the king 
of Prussia, who had entered it afresh at the head of his 
whole army. On May 6th was fought the famous battle of 
Potshernitz, or of Prague, when count Brown was dan- 
gerously wounded. Obliged to retire to Prague, he there 
died of his wounds, the 26th of June. 1757, at the age of 
52. The count was not only a great general, be wa* in 



J9P BROW N. 

equally able negotiator, and well skilled in politics. H$ 
married, Aug. 15, 1726, Maria Pbilippina countess of Mar> 
jinjtz, of an illustrious and anqient family in Bohemia, by 
whom he had two sons. The life pf this e^cgllent con> r 
mander was published in two separate volumes, one in 
(jrerman, the other in French, printed at Prague in 1757.? 
BROWNE (Sja AtfTtfONY), an English judge, the son 
of sir We$tpn Browne of Abbess-roding in Essex, was bora 
in tl*at pounty, and educated for sonie time at Oxford, 
wheqce he removed to the Middle Temple, where he be* 
came eminent in the law, and was chosen sunixner reader 
•in Jhe first of qupen Mary, 1553. The following year he 
was made serjeant at law, and was the first of the call. 
Soon after he w$s appointed serjeant to the king and que£0, 
Philip and Mary. In 1558, he was preferred to be lgrd 
pbief justice of the common pleas ; but removed upon 
que^n Dory's decease, to majse way for sir James Dyer, 
for thqugh a Roman catholic, and queen Elizabeth might 
pot chusp lie shou]4 preside in (bat eourt, she had such an, 
opinion of Jiis talents, that he vyas permitted to retain the 
situation pf puisne op the bench as long as he 1 jvefj. It is 
even said that he refused the place of lord keeper, which 
w§s offered to him, wheri the queen thought of removing 
$}r Nicholas Bacon for being concerned in Hales's t>oo]t, 
written against the Scottish line, in favour of the house of 
Suffolk. This hook sir Anthony privately answered *, ox 
made large collections for an answer, which Leslie, bishop 
of Ross, and Morgan Philips afterwards ma.de use of, in, 
the works they published in defence of the title of Mary 
queen of Scots. Sir Anthony Brownp died at bis house in 
the parish of South wojd in Essex, May 6, 1567. The 
only works attributed to him were left in MS. : namely, 
1 • " A Discourse upon certain points touching the Inheri- 
tance of the flrown," mentioned already, and. 2. " A book 
against Robert Pud ley, earl of Leicester," mentioned by. 
Dr. Mattheyr Paterson, in his " Jerusalem and Ba\>el f " 
1653, p. 587, !> ut ^ ne object of which we are unacquainted 
yath. Plowden sajs of sir Anthony, that he was < c a, 
judge of profoqn4 genius, and great eloquence." % t 

* There seems some mistake here, sir Nicholas Bacon got possession of 
or at least a want of accuracy in Dodd, sir A. Browne's book, and wrotg' an, 
p/ Wood. It is said by the latter that answer to it. 

} J/ifo •« above. ' • Wood's Ath. vqL J^Etodd's ph. Hist. ?ol. I, 

j' •»•'*-■' 



BROWNE. , 121 

BROWNE (Edward), an eminent physician, son of sir 
Thomas Browne, hereafter mentioned, was born about 
1642. He was instructed in grammar learning at the 
school of Norwich, and in 1665 took the degree of bache- 
lor of physic at Cambridge. Removing afterwards to Mer* 
ton college, Oxford, he was admitted there to the same 
degree in 1666, and the next year created doctor. In 
1668, he visited part of Germany, and the year following 
made a wider excursion into Austria, Hungary, and Thes~ 
saly, where the Turkish sultan then kept his court at La* 
rissa. He afterwards passed through Italy. Upon his re- 
turn, he practised physic in London ; was made physician 
first to Charles II. and afterwards in 1682 to St Bartholo- 
mew's hospital. About the same time he joined his name 
to those of many other eminent men, in a translation of 
Plutarch's Liv\es. He was first censor, then elect, and trea- 
surer of the college of physicians; of which in 1705 he 
was chosen president, and held this office till his death, 
which happened in August 1708, after a very short illness, 
at his seat at Northfleet, near Greenhithe in Kent. He 
was acquainted with Hebrew, was a critic in Greek, and 
po man of his age wrote better Latin. German, Italian, 
French, &c. he spoke and wrote with as much ease as his 
mother tongue. Physic was his business, and to the pro- 
motion thereof all his other acquisitions were referred. 
Botany, pharmacy, and chemistry, he knew and practised. 
King Charles said of him, that " he was as learned as any 
of the college, and as well-bred as any at court." He was 
married, and left a son and a daughter ; the former, Dr. 
Thomas Browne, F. R. S. and of the royal college of phy- 
sicians, died in July 1710. The daughter married Owen 
Brigstock, of Lechdenny, in the county of Carmarthen, 
esq. to whom the public is indebted for part of the post- 
humous works of sir Thomas Browne. 

Dr. Browne, on his return from his travels, published an 
account of some part of them, and after his second tour, 
added another volume, 1677, 4to. In 1685, he published 
a new edition of the whole, with many corrections and im- 
provements, a work extravagantly and absurdly praised in 
the Biographia Britannica. His travels yield some infor- 
mation to naturalists, but little to the philosophical or 
common reader. 1 

* Slog . Brit— Johnson's I*ife of sir T. Browne. 



122 BROWNE* 

BROWNE (George), the first bishop that embraced 
and promoted the Reformation in Ireland, was originally 
an Austin friar of London. He received his academical 
education in the house of his order, near Halywell, in 
Oxford, and becoming eminent for his learning and other 
good qualities, was made provincial of the Austin monks 
in England. In 1523 be supplicated the university for the 
degree of B. D. but it does not appear that he was then 
admitted. He took afterwards the degree of D. D. in some 
university beyond sea, and was incorporated in the same 
degree at Oxford, in 1534, and soon after at Cambridge. 
Before that time, having read some of Luther's writings, 
he took a liking to his doctrine ; and, among other things, 
was wont to inculcate into the people, " That they should 
make their applications solely to Christ, and not to the 
Virgin Mary, or the saints." King Henry VIII. being in* 
formed of this, took him into his favour, and promoted 
him to the archbishopric of Dublin, to which he was con- 
secrated March 19, 1534-5, by Cranmer, archbishop of 
Canterbury, assisted by the bishops of Rochester and Sa- 
. lisbury. A few months after his arrival in Ireland, the 
lord privy-seal, Cromwell, signified to him that bis ma- 
jesty having renounced the Papal supremacy in England, 
it was his highness' s pleasure that his subjects of Ireland 
should obey his commands in that respect as in. England, 
and nominated him one of the commissioners for the exe- 
cution thereof. On November 28, 1535, he acquainted 
the lord Cromwell with his success; telling him that be 
had " endeavoured, almost to the danger and hazard of 
his life, to procure the nobility and gentry of the Irish 
nation to due obedience, in owning the king their supreme 
head, as well spiritual as temporal." In the parliament 
which met at Dublin, May 1, 1536, he was very instru- 
mental in having the Act for. the king's supremacy over 
the church of Ireland passed ; but he met with many ob- 
stacles in the execution of it ; and the court of Rome used 
every effort to prevent any alterations in Ireland with regard 
to religious matters ; for this purpose the pope sent over a 
boll of excommunication against all such as bad owned, or 
should own, the king's supremacy within that kingdom, and 
the form of an oath of obedience to be taken to his hotines* 
at confessions. Endeavours were even used to raise a re* 
bellion there ; for one Thady 6 Birne, a Franciscan friar, 
being seized by archbishop Browne's order, letters were 



BROWNE, 12* 

found about bim, from the pope and cardinals to O'Neal ; 
in which, after commending his own and his father's faith- 
fulness to the church of Rome, be was exhorted " for the 
glory of the mother church, the honour of St. Peter, and 
Eis own security, to suppress heresie, and his holiness's 
enemies." And the council of cardinals thought fit to en* 
courage his country, as a sacred island, being certain 
while mother church had a son of worth as himself, and 
those that should succour him and join therein, she would 
never fall, but have more or less a holding in Britain in 
spite of fyte. In pursuance of this letter, O'Neal began 
to declare himself the champion of Popery; and having 
entered into a ; confederacy with others, they jointly in- 
vaded the Pale, and committed several ravages, but were 
soon after quelled. About the time that king Henry VIII. 
began to suppress the monasteries in England and Ireland; 
archbishop Browne completed his design of removing all 
superstitious reliques and images out of the two cathedrals 
pf St. Patrick's and the Holy Trinity, in Dublin, and out 
of the rest of the churches within his diocese, and in their 
room placed the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten 
Commandments in gold letters. And in 1541, the king 
having converted the priory of the Holy Trinity into a 
cathedral church, consisting of a dean and chapter, our 
archbishop founded three prebends in the same in 1544, 
namely, St. Michael's, St. John's, and St. Michan's, from 
which time it has generally been known by the name of 
Christ-church. King Edward VI. having caused the Li- 
turgy to be published in English, sent an order to sir An- 
thony St, Leger, governor of Ireland, dated February 6, 
1550-1) to notify to all the clergy of that kingdom, that 
they should use this book in all their churches, and the 
Bible in the vulgar tongue. When sir Anthony imparted * 
this order to the clergy (on the 1st of March), it was ve- 
hemently opposed by the Popish party, especially by 
George Dowdall, primate of Armagh, but archbishop 
Browne received it with the utmost satisfaction ; and on 
Easter-day following the Liturgy was read, for the first time 
within Ireland, in Christ -church, Dublin, in presence of the 
mayor and bailiffs of that city, the lord deputy St Leger, 
archbishop' Browne, &c. On this occasion the archbishop 
preached a sermon against keeping the Scriptures in the 
Latin tongue, and the worship of images, which is printed 
at the end of his life, and is the only part of his writing* 



it* BROWNE. 

* 

extant, except the letters mentioned above *. But Dow* 
dall, in consequence of his violent and unseasonable oppo- 
sition to the king's order, was deprived of the title of 
primate of all Ireland, which, by letters patent bearing 
date the 20th of October, 1551, was conferred on arch- 
bishop Browne, and his successors in the see of Dublin 
for ever. However^ he did not long enjoy this dignity, 
for he was deprived both of it and his archbishopric in 

' 1554, the first of queen Mary I. under pretence that he 
was married, but in truth because he had zealously pro- 
moted the Reformation ; and archbishop Dowdall, who bad 
lived in exile during part of the reign of king Edward VI. 
recovered the title of primate, and also the archbishopric 
of Armagh, which had been given to Hugh Goodacre. 
While archbishop Browne enjoyed the see of Dublin, the 
cathedral of St. Patrick's was suppressed for about the 
space of eight years ; but queen Mary restored it to its 
ancient dignity, towards the end of the year 1554. The 
exact time of archbishop Browne's death is not recorded ; . 
only we are told that he died about the year 1556. He 
was a man, says Usher, of a cheerful countenance ; meek 
and peaceable : in his acts and deeds plain and downright ; 
of good parts, and very stirring in what he judged to be 
for the interest of religion, or the service of his king; mer- 
ciful and compassionate to the poor and miserable ; and 
adorned with every good and valuable qualification. 9 

BROWNE (Joseph), D.D. provost of Queen's-college, 
Oxford, was born at a place called the Tongue, in Water- 
millock, Cumberland, in 1700, and was baptised Dec. 19, 
of that year. . His father, George Browne, was a repu-* 
table yeoman, who was enabled to give his son a classical 
education at Barton school, and afterwards sent him to 

• Queen's-college, where he was admitted a member March 
22, 1716-17. Here his good behaviour and rapid pro- 
gress in knowledge, procured him many friends that were 
of great service to him. In due time he was elected ta- 
berdar upon the foundation; and having gone through 

* In this sermon, speaking of the They shall hare no resting-place upon 

Jesuits, archbishop Browne says: " God earth, and a Jew shall have mere fa* 

shall suddenly cot off this society, even your than a Jesuit." This has not 

by the band of those who have most escaped that acute biographer, rev. R. 

suoqoured them, so that at the end Churton, " Lives of the Founders," 

tbey shall become odious to all nations, p. 77. 

1 Biog. Brit. — Life and* Sermon in Phenix, vol. I,— Harleian Miscellany,— 
Strype's Cranmcr, p. 37, 27*.— Ath. Ox, vol. L 



BROWNE 12* 

that office with honour, he took the degree of M. A. Nov. 
4th, 1724, and was chosen one of the chaplains of the 
college. In 1726 he published, from the university press, 
a most beautiful edition of cardinal Barberini's Latin 
poems, with notes and a life of the author, (who was after- 
wards pope Urban VIII.) and a dedication to his friencf 
Edward Hassel, esq. of Dalemajn, his friend and patron. 
In April 1731, he was elected fellow, and became an 
eminent tutor, having several young noblemen of the first 
rank intrusted to bis care. In this useful and important 
station he continued many years, exercising strict dis- 
cipline) and assiduously studying to promote the pros- 
perity of the college. He took the degree of D. D. July 
9, 1743, and was presented by the provost and society to 
the rectory of Bramshot, in Hampshire, May 1, 1746. 
The university also conferred upon him the professorship 
of natural philosophy in 1747, which be held till his death. 
At his living at Bramshot, he resided more than ten years, 
during which time he was collated to the chancellorship of 
Hereford, and was made a canon-residentiary by the right 
rev. lord James Beauclerk, bishop of that diocese, who 
had formerly been his pupil. 

Upon the death of Dr. Smith, provost of Queen's, Nov. 
23, 1756, Dr. Browne offered himself a candidate for the 
headship, and had for his formidable competitor, Dr. 
George Fothergill, principal of Edmund-hall, who had 
likewise been fellow of the college, an eminent tutor, and 
a person universally esteemed. The election lasted three 
days, and each candidate having upon every day's scrutiny 
an equality of votes, both among the senior and junior 
fellows, Dr. Browne being the senior candidate, was, as 
the statute directs, declared duly elected. This contest, 
however, made no disagreement between the two com* 
petitors ; they lived in the same harmony and friendship 
as before. In 1759, Dr. Browne was appointed vice- 
chancellor, which arduous office, together with that of his 
headship, he managed with great prudence and ability, 
till March 25, 1765, when a stroke of the palsy rendered 
him utterly incapable of business. Under this calamity 
he languished till June .17, 1767, when he died, leaving 
the character of being a well-bred man, a polite as well as, 
a profound scholar, an agreeable companion, and a steady 
friend. There was a gravity and authority in his looks and 
deportment, that reflected dignity upon the offices he sus- 



126 B R O W NE,- 

tained. He continued vice-chancellor an unusual length 
of time, and presided at the memorable Encoenia when the 
earl of Litchfield was installed. It is said that his death 
prevented bis being advanced to one of the first vacancies 
on the episcopal bench. l 

BROWNE (Isaac Hawkins), esq. F. R. S. and a very 
ingenious and elegant poet of the last century, was born 
at Burton-upon -Trent, January 21, 1705-6 ; and was the 
son of the rev. William Browne, minister of that parish, 
where be chiefly resided, vicar of Winge, in Buckings 
hamshire, and a prebendary of Litchfield, which last pre-* 
ferment was given him by the excellent bishop Hough; 
He was possessed, also, of a small paternal inheritance, 
which he greatly increased by his marriage with Anne, 
daughter of Isaac Hawkins, esq. all whose estate, at length, 
came to his only grandson and heir-at-law, the subject of 
this article. Our author received his grammatical edu- 
cation, first at Litchfield, and then at Westminster, where 
he was much distinguished for the brilliancy of bis parts, 
and the steadiness of his application. The uncommon 
rapidity with which he passed through the several forms 
or classes of Westminster school, attracted the notice, and 
soon brought him under the direction of the head master, 
Dr. Freind, with whom he was a peculiar favourite. Mr. 
Browne stayed above a year in the sixth, or head form, 
with a view of confirming and improving his taste for clas- 
sical learning and composition, under so polite and able 
a scholar. When he was little more than sixteen years of 
age, he was removed to Trinity-college, Cambridge, of 
which college his father had been fellow. He remained 
at the university till he had taken his degree of M. A. and 
though during his residence there he continued his taste 
for classical literature, which through his whole life was 
his principal object and pursuit, he did not omit the pe- 
culiar studies of the place, but applied himself with vigour 
and success to all the branches of mathematical science,' 
and the principles of the Newtonian philosophy. When 
in May 1724, king George the First established at botlt 
universities, a foundation for the study of modern history 
and languages, with the design of qualifying young men 
for employments at court, arid foreign embassies, Mr. 
Browne was among the earliest of those who were selected 

* Hf}tabmfon'& Hist, gf Curaberltnd, vol. I. p. 42S. 



BROWNE. I2t 

la be scholar! upon this foundation. On the death of that 
prince, he wrote an university copy of verses, which was 
the first of his poems that had been printed, and was much 
admired. About the year 1727, Mr. Browne, who had 
been always intended for the bar, settled at Lincoln's-inn. 
Here he prosecuted, for several years, with great attention, 
the study of the law, and acquired in it a considerable 
degree of professional knowledge, though he never arrived 
to any eminence in the practice of it, and entirely gave it 
up long before his death. He was the less solicitous about 
the practice of his profession, and it Was of the less con- 
sequence to him, as he was possessed of a fortune ade- 
quate to his desires ; which, by preserving the happy mean 
between extravagance and avarice, he neither diminished 
nor increased. 

Mr. Browne's application to the law did not prevent his 
occasionally indulging himself in the exercise of his poeti- 
cal talents. It was not long after his settlement at Lin- 
coln Vina that he wrote his poem on " Design and Beauty," 
addressed to Highmore the painter, for whom he had a 
great friendship. In this, one of the longest of his poems, 
he shews an extensive knowledge of the Platonic philo- 
sophy ; and pursues, through the whole, the idea of beauty 
advanced by that philosophy. By design is here meant,* 
in a large and extensive sense, that power of genius which 
enables the real artist to collect together his scattered 
ideas, to range them in proper order, and to form a re- 
gular plan before he attempts to exhibit any work in ar- 
chitecture, painting, or poetry. He wrote several other 
poetical pieces during the interval between his fixing at 
Lincoln's-inn and his marriage ; one of the most pleasing 
and popular of which was his " Pipe of Tobacco," an 
imitation of Cibber, Ambrose Philips, Thomson, Young, 
Pope, and Swift, who were then all living ; the peculiar 
manner of these several writers is admirably hit off by our 
author, who evidently possessed an excellent imitative ge- 
nius. Indeed, nothing but a nice spirit of discrimination, 
and a happy talent at various composition, could have en- 
abled him to have succeeded so well as he hath done in 
the " Pipe of Tobacco." The imitation of Ambrose Philips 
was not written by our poet, but by an ingenious friend, 
the late Dr. John Hoadly, chancellor of the diocese of 
Winchester, and second son of the bishop. Dr. Hoadly, 
however, acknowledged that his little imitation was altered 



128 BROWNE. 

so much for the better by Mr. Browne, that he fairly mad* 
it his own. 

On the 10th of February 1743-4, Mr. Browne married 
Jane, daughter of the rev. Dr. David Trimnell, archdea- 
con of Leicester, and precentor of Lincoln, and niece to? 
the right rev. Dr. Charles Trimnell, bishop of Winchester,' 
a woman of great merit, and of a very amiable temper. 
He was chosen twice to serve in parliament ; first upon a 
vacancy in December 1744, and then at the general elec- 
tion in 1748, for the borough of Wenlock in Shropshire, 
near to which his estate lay. This was principally owing 
to the interest of William Forester, esq. a gentleman of 
great fortune and ancient family in Shropshire, who re- 
commended Mr. Browne to the electors, from the opinion 
he entertained of his abilities, and the confidence he had 
in his integrity and principles. As Mr. Browne had ob- 
tained his seat in parliament without opposition or ex- 
pence, and without laying himself under obligations to 
any party, he never made use of it to interested or ambi«« 
tious purposes. The principles, indeed, in which he had 
been educated, and which were confirmed by reading and 
experience, and the good opinion he had conceived of 
Mr. Pelham's administration, led him usually to support 
£he measures of government ; but he never received any 
favour, nor desired any employment. He saw with great 
concern the dangers arising from parliamentary influence/ 
and was determined that no personal consideration should 
biass his public conduct. The love of his country, and an 
ardent zeal for its constitution and liberties, formed a 
distinguishing part of his character. In private conver- 
sation, Mr. Browne possessed so uncommon a degree of 
eloquence, that he was the admiration and delight of all 
who knew him. It must, therefore, have been expected 
that he should have shone in the house of commons, as a 
public speaker. But be had a modesty and delicacy about 
him, accompanied with a kind of nervous timidity, which 
prevented him from appearing in that character. His case,' 
in this respect, was similar to that of the third earl of 
Shaftesbury, Mr. Addison, and other ingenious men. Dr. 
Johnson said of him, " I. H. Browne, one of the first wits 
of this country, got into parliament, and never opened his* 
mouth." 

In 1754 Mr. Browne published what may be called hia* 
great work, his Latin poem " De Animi Immortalitate, 



» 



BROWNE. 129 \ 



H 



in two books, the reception of which was such as its merit I 

deserved. It immediately excited the applause of the most 
polite scholars, and has been praised by some of the most 
eminent and ingenious men of the age, by archbishop 
Herring, Dr. E. Barnard, R. O. Cambridge, Mr. Upton, 
bishop Hoadly, bishop Green, Mr. Harris, Dr. Beattie, 
&c. &c. Its popularity was so great, that several English 
translations of it appeared in a little time. The first was 
by Mr.. Hay, author of an (t Essay on Deformity,*' and ■ 
other pieces ; and the second in blank verse, by Dr. Ri- 
chard Grey, a learned clergyman, well known by his "Me- 
moria Technics," and his publications in scripture criti- 
cism. A third translation was published without a name, 
but with a laboured preface, containing some quotations 
from sir John Davies's " Nosce Teipsum," which were 
supposed to be analogous to certain passages in Mr. Browne. 
All these versions made their appearance in the course of 
a- few months ; and there was afterwards printed, by am 
unknown hand, a translation of the first book. Some years 
after Mr. Browne's death, the " De Animi Immortalitate" 
was again translated by the rev. Mr. Crawley, a clergyman 
in Huntingdonshire* and more recently Dr. John Lettice, 
published a translation in blank verse, with a commentary 
and annotations, 1795, 8vo: A close and literal version 
of it in prose was inserted by Mr. Highmore the painter 
in his publication which appeared in 1766, entitled " Es- 
says moral, religious, and miscellaneous." But the best 
translation is that by Soame Jenyns, esq. printed in his 
Miscellanies, and since published in Mr. Browne's poems. 
These testimonies and attentions paid to our ingenious 
author's principal production, are striking evidences of the 
high sense which was justly entertained of its merit. Not 
to mention the usefulness and importance of the subject, 
every man of taste must feel that the poem is admirable 
for its perspicuity, precision, and order; and that it unite* 
the philosophical learning and elegance of Cicero, with 
the numbers, and much of the poetry, of Lucretius and 
Virgil. Mr. Browne intended to have added a third book. 
In these three books he proposed to carry natural religion 
as far as it would go, and in so doing, to lay the true 
foundation of Christianity, of which he was a firm believer. 
But he went no farther than to leave a fragment of the 
third book, enough to make us lament that he did not 
complete the whole. 
Vol. VII. K 



130 B R O W N E. 

Though Mr. Browne was bred to a profession, and sat 
several years in parliament, he was not so shining or dis- 
tinguished a character in public as in private life*. His 
private life was chiefly divided between his books and his 
friends. His reading took in a large compass; but he had 
the greatest delight in the Greek and Roman writers. Few 
men formed so early and lasting a taste, and acquired so 
familiar a knowledge of the ancient poets, philosophers, 
orators, and historians, particularly those of the purest 
ages ; and hence it was that he derived the happy art of 
transfusing into the more serious of his compositions, the 
graces of their diction, and the strength of their sentiments, 
without servile imitation. He was very conversant like- 
wise with the best English and Italian authors. His me- 

i • 
mory enabled him to retain every thing which he had heard 

or read ; and he could repeat, with the greatest facility 
and gracefulness, the fine passages he had treasured up in 
his mind. Having a perfect ear for harmony and rhythm, 
he was an admirable reader both of prose and verse, and 
without having ever applied himself to the practice of mu- 
sic, his natural taste rendered him a good judge in that 
delightful art. With these various accomplishments, to 
which were added, a remarkably happy talent of telling a 
story, a genuine flow of wit, as well as eloquence, a pe- 
culiar vein of humour, and, indeed, an excellence in every 
species of conversation, it is not surprising that his com- 
pany was almost universally sought for and desired. His 
acquaintance was so courted, that, though his private in- 
clination would have led him to have lived retired, in the 
society, of a few old friends, he became, at different pe- 
riods of his life, intimate with all the distinguished men 
of the age, and with those especially, who were most 

* The following anecdote, which was than any of us ;" at the same time re- 
related by Mr. James Close, a re- questing him to favour the court with 
speotable solicitor of Lincoln's-Iim, is his sentiments on the case in question, 
highly honourable to Mr. Browne. Mr. Browne, having first modestly ex- 
During the time that Mr. Browne at- cused himself, was prevailed upon to 
tended the chancery bar, the merits of comply with the chancellor's motion, 
a cause were a/gued before the lord- and spoke for an hour on the rise and 
chancellor Hardwicke, the decision of tenure of gavel- kind, with great leara- 
which depended upon ascertaining the ing, accuracy, and precision, and with 
rights and obligations of gavel-kind, a particular application to the matter 
The counsel employed on each side in hand. The chancellor thanked him 
having rather perplexed than thrown much for the information himself and 
light upon the subject, the lord-chan- the audience had received, and ex- 
cel lor said, " There sits a gentle- pressed his concern that he had uot the 
man (meaning Mr. Browne), who, pleasure of hearing him ofteuer upon 
I believe, knows- more of the matter other subjects. , 



BROWNE. 131 

eminent, for their learning and parliamentary abilities. His 
particular friends were persons of distinguished merit and 
virtue. By these he was held in the highest esteem and 
respect, and his union with them was never broken by apy 
thing but death. His fine feelings, his enlarged and ex- 
alted sentiments, and the general excellence of his cha- 
racter, continued to render any social connections with 
him as lasting as they were desirable and delightful. One 
great object of Mr. Browne's attention, during the latter 
part of his life, was the education of his only spn, to whom 
he was an excellent father and instructor. Our author, 
after having laboured a considerable time under a weak and 
infirm state of health, died, of a lingering illness, at his 
house in Great Russel -street, Bloomsbury-square, '.Lon- 
don, on the 14th of February, 1760, in the fifty-fifth year 
of his age. In 1768, the present Mr. Hawkins Browne 
published an elegant edition, in large octavo, of his father's 
poems ; upon which occasion he had the satisfaction of 
receiving fresh testimonies to their merit from many emi- 
nent men then living. To this edition is prefixed a very 
fine head by Ravenet from a picture by Highmore. * 

BROWNE (Moses), vicar of Olney in Buckingham- 
shire, and chaplain of Morden college, was born in 1703, 
and was originally a pen-cutter. Early in life be distin- 
guished himself by his poetical talents, and when only 
twenty years of age, published a tragedy called " Polidus,'* 
and a farce called " All-bedevilled," which were played 
together at a private theatre in St. Alban's-street, neither 
of much merit. He became afterwards a frequent contri- 
butor to the Gentleman's Magazine, and carried off several 
of the prizes .which Cave^ the printer and proprietor of that 
Magazine, then offered for the best compositions. When 
Cave published a translation of Du H aide's China, he in- 
scribed the different plates to his- friends, and one to 
" Moses Browne," with which familiar designation Browne 
thought proper to be offended, and Cave, to pacify him, 
directed the engraver to introduce Mr. wnh a caret under' 
the line. In 1729, he published his "Piscatory Eclogues," 
without his name, which were reprinted in 1739, among 
his " Poems on various subjects," 8vo, and again in an ex- 
tended form, with notes, in 1773. For along time, how- 

1 Biog. Brit communicated by his son. — BpswelPs Johnson. — Nichols, Dodg- 
ley, and Pearch's Poems.— See an anecdote of one of his poems in Warburton'a 
Letters, 4to edit. p. 31. 

K 2 



132 BROWNE. 

ever, even after his abilities vfere known, he remained in 
poverty, anil in 1745, when it appears be had a wife and 
seven children, we find him applying to Dr. Birch for the 
situation of messenger, or door-keeper, to the royal society. 
In 1750, he published an edition of Walton and Cotton's 
Angler, with a preface, notes, and some valuable additions, 
which was republished in 1759 and 1772, and in the for- 
mer year drew him into a controversy with sir John Haw- 
kins, who happened to be then publishing an improved 
edition of the same work. From his poems, as well a& 
from the scattered observations in the " Angler," he ap- 
pears to have been always of a religious turn ; and in 1752 
published in verse, a series of devout contemplations, en- 
titled " Sunday Thoughts," which went through a second 
edition in 1764, and a third in 1781. In 1753, having 
some prospect of encouragement in the church, he took 
orders, and soon after his ordination was presented by the 
earl of Dartmouth to the vicarage of Olney in Bucking- 
hamshire, on the cession of Mr. Wolsey Johnson. In 1754 
he published a sermon, preached at Olney, on Christmas 
day, entitled " The Nativity and Humiliation of Jesus 
Christ, practically considered*" In 1755, he published a 
small quarto poem, entitled " Percy Lodge," a seat of the 
duke and duchess of Somerset, written by command of 
their late graces, in 1749. In what year he was presented 
to the vicarage of Sutton, in Lincolnshire, we are not in- 
formed ; but in 1763, he was elected to the chaplainship of 
Morden college in Kent, and some time after appointed the 
late rev. John Newton for his curate at Olney. In 1765 he 
published a sermon " preached to the Society for the 
Reformation of Manners," and a few years after, a "Visi- 
tation Sermon," delivered at Stony Stratford. Besides 
these, Mr. Browne is said to have published one or two po- 
litical tracts ; and in 1772, a translation of a work of John 
Liborius Zimmerman, entitled "The Excellency of the 
knowledge of Jesus Christ," London, 12mo. He died at 
Morden college, Sept. 13, 1787, aged eighty-four. His 
wife died in 1783. Mr. Browne was a man of some learn- 
ing and piety, but as a poet, we fear he cannot be allowed 
to rank higher than among versifiers. l 

BROWNE (Patrick) j M. D. a naturalist of considera- 
ble eminence, the fourth son of Edward Browne, esq. a 

1 Bibliographer, vol. IT. — Hawkins's Life of Johnson.-— Gent. Mag. vols. 
LVII. LX1I. and JUXIV. — Nichols's Literary Anecdotes. 



BROWNE. 135 

gentleman of respectable family, was born at Woodstock, 
the paternal inheritance, in the parish of Crossboyne, and 
county of Mayo, about 1720. After receiving the best 
education that country could afford, he was sent to a near 
relation in the island of Antigua in 1737 ; but the climate 
disagreeing very much with his constitution, he returned 
in about a year to Europe, and landing in France, went 
directly to Paris, where he speedily recovered bis health, 
and with the approbation of his parents applied himself 
closely to the study of physic, and particularly to the 
science of botany, tor which he always had a particular 
predilection. After five years spent at Paris, he removed 
to Leyden, where he studied near two years more, and 
from that university obtained his degree of M» D. — Here 
he formed an intimacy with Gronovius and Muschen- 
broeck, and commenced a correspondence with Linnaeus 
and other eminent botanists and learned men. From Hol- 
land he proceeded to London, where he practised near two 
years, and thence went out again to the West Indies, and 
after spending some months in Antigua and some others 
of the Sugar Islands, he proceeded to Jamaica, where he 
spent his time in collecting and preserving specimens of 
the plants, birds, shells, &c. of those luxuriant soils, with 
a view to the improvement of natural history. 

Whilst in Jamaica, his residence was chiefly in King- 
ston, and it was he who first pointed out the absurdity of 
continuing Spanish-town the port and capital, while rea- 
son plainly pointed out Kingston, or in his own words, 
" the defects of a port of clearance to leeward ;" and by 
his writings the governor and council represented the mat* 
ter so strikingly to earl Granville, president of the council 
1756, that the measure was immediately adopted, and 
Kingston made the port of clearance, to the very great 
benefit of commerce in general, as before that, when ships 
were clearing out of Kingston, and ready' to weigh 
anchor, they were obliged to send near seven miles to Spa- 
nish-town, by which they often suffered great inconve- 
nience and delay. 

At this time he dlso collected materials, and made the 
necessary observations (being a very good mathematician 
and astronomer) for a new map of Jamaica, which he pub- 
lished in London, in August 1755, engraved by Dr. Bayly, 
gn two sheets, by which the doctor cleared four hundred 
guineas. Soon after this (March 1756) he published his 



134 ' BROWNE. 

iS Civil and Natural History of Jamaica," in folio, orna* 
merited with forty-nine engravings of natural history, a 
whole sheet map of the island, and another of the harbour 
of Port-Royal, Kingston-town, &c. Of this work there 
were but two hundred and fifty copies printed by subscrip- 
tion, at the very low price of one guinea, but a few were 
sold at two pounds two shillings in sheets by the printer. 
Most unfortunately all the copper-plates, as well as the 
original drawings, were consumed by the great fire in 
Cornhill, November 7, 1765. This alone prevented in his 
life-time a second edition of that work, for which he made 
considerable preparations, by many additional plants, and 
a, few corrections in his several voyages to these islands, 
for he was six different times in the West Indies ; in one 
of those trips he lived above twelve months in the island 
of Antigua : however, these observations will we trust not 
be lost to the public, as he sent before his death to sir Jo- 
seph Banks, P. R. S. " A catalogue of the plants growing 
in the Sugar Islands, &c. classed and described according 
to the Linnsean system," in 4to, containing about eighty 
pages. In Exshaw's Gentleman's and London Magazine 
for June 1774, he published " A catalogue of the birds of 
Ireland," and in Exshaw's August Magazine following, 
" A catalogue of its fish." In 1788 he prepared for the 
press a very curious and useful catalogue of the plants of 
the north-west counties of Ireland, classed with great. care 
and accuracy according to the Linnsean system, containing 
above seven hundred . plants, mostly observed by himself, 
having trusted very few to the descriptions of others. This 
little tract, written in Latin with the English and Irish 
names, might be of considerable use in assisting to compile 
a " Flora Hibernica," a work every botanist will allow to 
be much wanting. 

The doctor was a tall, comely man, of good address and 
gentle manners, naturally cheerful, very temperate, and in 
general healthy ; but in his latter years had violent pe- 
riodical fits of the gout, by which he suffered greatly : in 
the intervals of these unwelcome visits, he formed the 
catalogue of plants, and was always, when in health, do- 
ing something in natural history or mathematics. At a 
very early period he married in Antigua a native of that 
island, but had no issue. His circumstances were mode- 
rate, but easy, and the poor found ample benefit from his 
liberality as well as professional skill He died at Rush- 



BROWNE, 1&5 

brook, county of Mayo, on Sunday August 59, 1790, and 
was interred in the family burial-place at Crossboyne. l 

BROWNE (Petek), a native of Ireland, was at first 
provost of Trinity college in Dublin, and afterwards bisliop 
of Cork : in the palace of which see he died in 1735, after 
having distinguished himself by some writings. 1. " A 
refutation of Toland's Christianity not mysterious." This 
was the foundation of his preferment ; which occasioned him 
to say to Toland himself, that it was he who had made him 
bishop of Cork. 2. " The progress, extent, and limits of 
the human understanding/ 9 1728, 8vo. This was meant 
as a supplemental work, displaying more at large the prin- 
ciples on which he had confuted Toland. 3. " Sermons," 
levelled principally against the Socinians, written in a, 
manly and easy style, and much admired. He published 
also, 4. A little volume in 1 2mo, against the " Custom of 
drinking to the memory of the dead. 1 ' It was a fashion 
among the Whigs of his time, to drink to the glorious and 
immortal memory of king William HI. which greatly dis- 
gusted our bishop, and is supposed to have given rise to 
the piece in question. His notion was that drinking to 
the dead is tantamount to praying for the dead, and not, 
as is really meant, an approbation of certain conduct or 
principles. The only effect, however, was that the whigs 
added to their toast, — " in spite of the bishop of Cork." * 

BROWNE (Simon), an able and learned minister and 
writer among the protestant dissenters, and who was re- 
markable for a mental disorder of a most extraordinary 
kind, was born at Shepton~Mallet, in Somersetshire, about 
1680. He was instructed in grammar by the rev. Mr. 
Cumming, who was pastor of a congregation in that town ; 
from whence he was removed to Bridgewater, and finished 
his studies under the care of the rev. Mr. Moon As he 
possessed uncommon parts, which had been improved by 
the most assiduous application, he was very early thought 
qualified for the ministry ; so that he began to preach some 
time before he was twenty years of age. His talents soon 
rendered him so conspicuous among the dissenters, that he 
was chosen minister of a considerable qongregation at 
Portsmouth, in which situation he continued some years. 
In 1706, he published a small treatise, entitled " A caveat 

r 

• 

1 Burop. Magazine, Aug. 1 795. 

• Preceding edition of this Dictionary.— Orton's Letters to Stedman, rol. I, 
p, 212, 213. 



136 



BROWNE. 



against evil Company." In 1709, he published, in one 
volume, 8vo, "The true character of the real Christian." He 
discharged the duties of the pastoral office at Portsmouth 
with so much fidelity and diligence, as procured him uni- 
versal esteem; but, in 1716, he removed to the great re- 
gret of his congregation, in consequence of his being in- 
vited to accept of the pastoral charge of the congregation 
of protestant dissenters in the Old Jewry, London, which 
was- one of the most considerable in the kingdom. la 
1720, he published, in one volume, 12mo, " Hymns and 
Spiritual Songs, in three books." In 1722, he published 
a volume of " Sermons," and about the same time a " Let- 
ter to the rev. Thomas Reynolds," in which he censures 
that gentleman and other dissenters for requiring of their 
brethren explicit declarations of their belief in the doc* 
trine of the Trinity. At the Old Jewry he continued to 
preach for about seven years with the greatest reputation, 
and was much beloved and esteemed by his congregation^ : 
but, in 1723, a complicated domestic affliction, the loss of 
his wife, and of an only son, so deeply affected him, that 
be was at first in a state little different from distraction ; and 
the disorder which his imagination had sustained from the 
shock that he had received, at length settled into a melan- 
choly of a very extraordinary nature*. He desisted from 
the duties of his function, and could not be persuaded to 
join in any act of worship, either public or private. He 
imagined, " that Almighty God, by a singular instance of 
divine power, had, in a gradual manner, annihilated in 
him the thinking substance, and utterly divested him of 
consciousness : that though he detained the human shape, 
and the faculty of speaking, in a manner that appeared to 
others rational, he had all the while no more notion of what 
he said than a parrot. And, very consistently with this, 



* As the cause of Browne's insanity 
has been thought by some, not ade- 
quate to the effect, the following story 
has been revived lately: ** Mr. Browne 
being on a journey with a friend, they 
Mrere attacked by a highwayman, who 
presented a pistol and demanded the.ir 
money. Mr. B< being courageous, 
strong, and active, disarmed him, and 
seizing him by the collar, they both 
fell to the ground, in the struggle to 
. overpower him, Mr. B. at length get- 
ting uppermost, placed hU knee on 
the highwayman's breast, and by that 



means confined him while his compa- 
nion rode to town, at a distance, for 
help to secure him. After a consider- 
able time, he returned with assistance ; 
upon which J\Ir. B. arose from off the 
man to deliver him up to safe custody, 
but, to bis unspeakable terror, the man 
was dead." There seems but slender 
foundation far the story, but supposing 
it true, it will' not account much more 
clearly for Mr. B.'s insanity, than the 
loss of bis wife and son. Protestant 
Dissenters' Magazine, vol. IV. p. 433. 



BROWNE- -1ST 

he looked upon himself as no longer a moral agent, a sub- 
ject of reward or punishment." He continued in this per- 
suasion to the end of his life, with very little variation. 
Nothing grieved him more, than that he could not per- 
suade others to think of bim as he thought of himself. He 
sometimes considered this as questioning his veracity, 
which affected bim in the most sensible manner; and he 
often took pains, by the most. solemn asseverations, to re- 
move such an imputation. At other times, and in a more 
gloomy hour, he would represent the incredulity which was 
manifested towards him, as a judicial effect of the same 
divine power that had occasioned this strange alteration in 
him, as if God had determined to proceed against him in 
this way, and would have no application made in his be- 
half. Upon this account, for a long while, he was un- 
willing that any prayers should be made for him ; which, 
he would say, could be warranted by nothing x but a faith 
in miracles, and even refused to say grkce at table, or if. 
urged to it, appeared in the greatest distress. At the be- 
ginning of his disorder, he was so unhappy in himself, as 
to have frequent propensities to deprive himself of life ; 
but he afterwards grew more serene, and appeared to have 
little or no terror upon his mind. He considered himself 
as one who, though he had little to hope, had no more to 
fear, and was therefore, for the most part, calm and com- 
posed ; and when the conversation did not turn upon him- 
self, as it was generally rational and very serious, so was 
it often cheerful and pleasant. But his opinion concern- 
ing himself occasionally led him into inconsistencies ; and 
when these were pointed out to him, he sometimes ap- 
peared much puzzled. 

Whilst he was under the influence of this strange frenzy, 
it was extremely remarkable, that his faculties appeared 
to be in every other respect in their full vigour. He con- 
tinued to apply himself to his studies, and discovered the 
same force of. understanding which had formerly distin- 
guished him, both in his conversation and in bis writings. 
Having, however, quitted the ministry, he retired into the 
country, to his native town of Shepton-Mallet. Here, for 
some time, he amused himself with translating several parts 
of the ancient Greek and Latin poets into English verse. 
He afterwards composed several little pieces for the use of 
children, an English grammar and spelling-book, an ab- 
stract of the scripture-history, and a collection of fables, 



138 



BROWN)!. 



the two last both in metre. With great labour he also 
amassed together, in a short compass, all the themes of 
the Greek and Latin tongues, and compiled likewise a 
dictionary * to each of these works, in order to render the 
learning of both those languages more easy and compen- 
dious. But neither of these pieces, nor several others 
which were written by him during his retirement, were 
ever printed. During the last two years of his life, be* 
employed himself in the defence of the truth of Christi- 
anity, against some of the attacks which were then made 
against it; and also in recommending mutual candour to 
Christians of different sentiments concerning the doctrine 
of the Trinity. In 1732, he -published, in 8vo, " A sober 
and charitable disquisition concerning the importance of 
the- Doctrine of the Trinity; particularly with regard to 
Worship, and the doctrine of Satisfaction: endeavouring to 
shew, that those in the different schemes should bear with 
each other in their different sentiments; nor separate com* 
munions, and cast one another out of Christian-fellowship 
on this account." The same year he published, " A fit 
Rebuke to a ludicrous Infidel, in some remarks on Mr. 
Woolston's fifth Discourse on the Miracles of our Saviour. 
With a preface concerning the prosecution of such writers 
by the civil powers.'* It was in the same year also that 
he published his " Defence of the Religion of Nature, 
and the Christian Revelation, against the defective account 
of the one, and the exceptions against the other, in a 
book, entitled, Christianity as old as the Creation. 9 ' In all 
these pieces, though written in his retirement, with little 
assistance from books, or learned conversation, he yet dis- 
played considerable extent of knowledge, and of argu- 
mentative powers. But to the last of these performances „ 
he prefixed a very singular dedication to queen Caroline, 
expressive of the unhappy delusion under which he la- 
boured ; and which his friends prudently suppressed, al- 
though it is too ggeat a curiosity to be lost f. 



* It is said, that a friend once call-' 
ed upon him,, and asked him what He 
was doing ? lie replied, " 1 am doing 
nothing that requires a reasonable soul ; 
I am making a dictionary: but you 
know thanks should be returned to God 
for every thing, and therefore for dic- 
tionary-makers," 



f Dedication to queen Caroline. 
Madam, 

Of all the extraordinary things that 
have been tendered to your royal hands, 
since your first happy arrival in Bri- 
tain, it may be boldly said, what now 
bespeaks your majesty's acceptance is 
the chief. Not in itself ipdeed : it is a 



BROWNE. 



139 



After his retirement into the country, he could not be 
prevailed upon to use any kind of exercise or recreation ; 
so that a complication of disorders, contracted by his se- 
dentary mode of living, at length brought on a mortifica- 
tion in his leg, which put a period to his life, at the close 
of the year 1732, in the fifty-second year of his age. He 
had several daughters, who survived him. He was a man 



trifle unworthy your exalted rank, and 
what will hardly prove an entertaining 
amusement to one of your majesty's 
deep penetration, exact judgment, and 
fine taste ; but on account of the au- 
thor, who is the first being of the kind, 
and yet without a name. 

He. was once a man, and of some 
little name; but of no worth, as his 
present unparalleled case makes but 
too manifest: for, by the immediate 
hand of an avenging God, his very 
thinking substance has for more than 
seven years been continually wasting 
away, till it is wholly perished out of 
him, if it be not utterly come to no- 
thing. None, no, not the least re- 
membrance of its very ruins remains ; 
not the shadow of an idea is left ; nor 
any sense, so much as one single one, 
perfect or imperfect, whole or dimi- 
nished, ever did appear to a mind 
within hi in, or was perceived by it. 

Such a present from such a thing, 
however worthless in itself, may not be 
wholly unacceptable to your majesty, 
the author being such as history can- 
not parallel ; and if the fact, which is 
real and no fiction or wrong conceit, 
obtains credit, it must be recorded as 
the mo6t memorable, and indeed asto- 
nishing, event in the reign of George II. 
that a tract, composed by such a thing, 
was presented to the illustrious Caro- 
line : his royal consort needs not be 
added ; fame, if I am not misinformed, 
will tell that with pleasure to all suc- 
ceeding times. 

He has been informed, that your 
majesty's piety is as genuine and emi- 
nent, as your excellent qualities are 
great and conspicuous. This can in- 
deed be truly knowu to the great search- 
er of hearts only. He alone, who can 
look into them, can discern if they are 
sincere, and the main iutention corre- 
sponds with the appearance ; and your 
majesty cannot take it amiss if such an 
author hints, that his secret approba- 
tion is of infinitely greater value than 



the commendation of men, who may be 
easily mistaken, and are too apt to 
flatter their superiors* But, if he has 
been told the truth, such a case as his 
will certainly strike your majesty with 
astonishment ; and may raise that com- 
miseration in your royal breast, which 
he has in vain endeavoured to excite 
in those of his friends : who, by the 
most unreasonable and ill-founded con- 
ceit in the world, have imagined, that 
a thinking being could for seven years 
together live a stranger to its own pow- 
ers, exercises, operations, and state ; 
and to what the great God has been 
doing in it, and to it. 

If your majesty, in your most re- 
tired address to the king of kings, 
should think of so singular a case, you 
may perhaps make it your devout re- 
quest, that the reign of your beloved 
sovereign and consort may be renowned 
to all posterity by the recovery of a 
soul now in the utmost ruin, the resto- 
ration of one utterly lost, at present, 
amongst men. And should this case 
affect your royal breast, you will re* 
commend it to the piety and prayers of 
all the truly devout, who have the ho- 
nour to be known to your majesty : 
many such doubtless there are, though 
courts are not usually the places where 
the devout resort, or where devotion 
reigns. And it is not improbable, that 
multitudes of the pious throughout the 
land may take a case to heart, that 
under your majesty's patronage comes 
thus recommended. 

Could such a favour as this restora- 
tion be obtained from heaven by the 
prayers of your majesty, with what 
transport of gratitude would the reco- 
vered being throw himself at your ma- 
jesty's feet, and, adoring the divine 
power and grace, profess himself, 

Madam, your majesty's most obliged 
and dutiful servant, 

Simon Browne. ' 

First printed by Dr. rlajrkesworth. , 
in the Adventurer, No. 88. 



110 BRO.WNE. • 

pf extensive knowledge, and very considerable learning. 
He was well skilled in theology, his sentiments were libe- 
ral, and he was a zealous advocate for freedom of inquiry. 
He appears, from the general tenor of his life, and of his 
writings, to have been a man of distinguished virtue, and 
of the most fervent piety, and to have been animated by 
an ardent zeal for the interests of rational and practical re- 
ligion. His abilities made him respected, and his virtues 
rendered him beloved : but such was the peculiarity of his 
case, that he lived a melancholy instance of the weakness 
of human nature. 

After Mr. Browne's death, in 1733, was published^ in 8vo, 
as a separate piece, "The Close of the Defence of the 
Religion of Nature and the Christian Revelation : in an- 
swer to Christianity as old as the Creation. In an address 
to Christian ministers and the Christian people." The 
author of Christianity as old as the Creation urges it as an 
argument against the truth of the Gospel revelation, that 
it has been productive of but little good effect in the lives 
of Christians, and that it does not appear that they have 
arrived at any higher state of perfection than the rest of 
mankind. This objection Mr. Browne answered in his De- 
fence ; and his Close of that Defence is an earnest and 
pathetic exhortation to Christian ministers and people, of 
all denominations, not to give so much ground by their 
conduct for such objections of the deists, but to regulate 
their lives in a more exact conformity to the precepts of 
the excellent religion which they professed. Besides the 
works of Mr. Browne which have been enumerated, he also 
published several single sermons ; and was one of the au- 
thors of the " Occasional Paper,'* a kind of periodical 
work, collected and published in 3 vols. 8vo, Some of his 
MSS. are in the British Museum, and among them a ver- 
sion of some of the Psalms. * 

BROWNE (Thomas), a clergyman of the church of 
England in the seventeenth century, was born in the 
county of Middlesex in 1604, was elected student of Christ 
church in 1620, and took the degrees in arts, that of mas- 
ter being completed in 1627. In 1636, he served the of- 
fice of proctor, and the year after was made domestic 
chaplain to archbishop Laud, and bachelor of divinity. 
Soon after he became rector of St. Mary, Aldermary, Lou* 
» * 

1 Bipg, Buti-rAtkey's Funeral Sermon.— Adventurer, No. 88. 



BROWNE, 141 

don, canon of Windsor in 1639, and rector ofOddtngton 
in Oxfordshire. On the breaking out of the rebellion, he 
was ejected from his church in London by the ruling party, 
and retired to his majesty, to whom he was chaplain, 
at Oxford, and in 1642 was created D. D. having then 
only the profits of Oddington to maintain him. He ap- 
pears afterwards to have been stripped even of this, and 
went to the continent, where he was for some time chap- 
lain to Mary, princess of Orange. After the restoration, 
he was admitted again to his former preferments, but does 
not appear to have had any other reward for his losses and 
sufferings. He died at Windsor Dec. 6, 1673, and waa» 
buried on the outside of St. George's chapel, where Dr. 
Isaac Vossiiis, his executor, erected a monument to his 
memory, with an inscription celebrating his learning, elo- 
quence, critical talents, and knowledge of antiquities. 
Besides a sermon preached before the university in 1633, 
he published,, " A Key to the King's Cabinet; or animad- 
versions upon the three printed speeches of Mr. L'isle, 
Mr. Tate, and Mr. Browne, members of the house of 
commons, spoken at a common hall in London, July 1645, 
detecting the malice and falsehood of their blasphemous ob- 
servations upon the king and queen's letters," Oxford, 
1645, 4to. His next publication was a treatise in defence 
of Grotius against an epistle of Salmasius, " De posthumo 
Grotii;" this he printed at the Hague, 1646, 8vo, under 
the name of Simplicius Virinus, and it was not known to 
be his until after his death, when the discovery was made 
by Vossius. He wrote also, " Dissertatio de Therapeutis 
Philonis adversus Henricum Valesium," Lond. 1687, 8vo, 
at the end of Colomesius' edition of St. Clement's epistles ; 
and he translated part of Camden's annals of queen Eliza- 
beth, under the title, " Tomus alter et idem ; or the 
History of the life and reign of that famous princess Eli- 
zabeth, &c." London, 1629, 4to. In the Republic of 
Letters, vol f VI. 1730, we find published for the first 
time, a " Concio ad Clerum," delivered for his divinity 
bachelor's degree in 1637 ; the subject, " the revenues of 
the clergy," which even at that period were threatened. l 

BROWNE (Sir Thomas), an eminent physician and 
antiquary, was born in London, in the parish of St. 
Michael, Cheapside, Oct. 19, 1605. His father wasam'er- 

» Ath. Ox, vol. II.— Republic of Letters* vol. VI. 



142 BROWNE. 

chant, of an ancient family at Upton in Cheshire. He lost 
his father very early, and was defrauded by one of his 
guardians, by whom, however, or by his mother, who soon 
after his father's death married sir Thomas Dutton, he was 
placed at Winchester school. In 1623 he was removed 
from Winchester to Oxford, and entered a gentleman- 
commoner of Broadgate-hall. Here he was admitted to his 
bachelor's degree, Jan. 31, 1626-27, being the firsf person 
of eminence graduated from Broadgate-hall, when en- 
dowed and known as Pembroke-college. After .taking his 
master's degree, he turned his studies to physic, and prac- 
tised it for some time in Oxfordshire, but soon afterwards, 
either induced by curiosity, or invited by promises, he 
quitted his settlement, and accompanied his father-in-law, 
who had some employment in Ireland, in a visitation of 
the forts and castles, which the state of Ireland then made 
necessary. From Ireland he passed into France and Italy ; 
made some stay at Montpelier and Padua, which were then 
the celebrated schools of physic ; and, returning home 
through Holland, procured himself to be created M. D. at 
J-eyden, but when he' began these travels, or when he 
concluded them, there is no certain account. It is, how- 
ever, supposed that he 1 returned to London in. 1634, ajid 
that the following year he wrote his celebrated treatise, 
the " Religio Medici," which he declares himself never 
to have intended for the press,* having composed it only 
for his own exercise and entertainment. He had, how- 
ever, communicated it to his friends, and by some means 
a copy was given to a printer in 1642, and was no sooner 
published than it excited the attention of the public by 
the novelty of paradoxes, the dignity of sentiment, the 
quick succession of images, the multitude of abstruse al- 
lusions, the subtlety of disquisition, and the strength of 
language. 

The earl of Dorset recommended this book to the pe- 
rusal of sir Kenelm Digby, who returned his judgment 
upon it, not in a letter, but in a book ; in which, though 
mingled with some positions fabulous and uncertain, there 
are acute remarks, just censures, and profound specula- 
tions, yet its principal claim to admiration is, that it was 
written in twenty-four hours, of which part was spent in 
procuring Browne's book, and part in reading it. . This 
induced sir Thomas to publish a more correct edition of 
his work, which had great success. A Mr. Merry weather, 



BROWNE. 143 

of Cambridge, turned it, not inelegantly, into Latin, and 
from his version it was again translated into Italian, Ger- 
man, Dutch, and French, and at Strasburgh the Latin 
translation was published with large notes, by Lenuus Ni- 
colaus Moltfarius. Of the English annotations, which, in 
all the editions from 1644, accompany the book, the au- 
thor is unknown. Merryweather, we are told, had' some 
difficulty in getting his translation printed in Holland. The 
first printer to whom he offered it carried it to Salmasius, 
" who laid it by (says he) in state for three months," and 
then discouraged its publication : it was afterwards re- 
jected by two other printers, and at last was received by 
Hackius. The peculiarities of the book raised the author, 
as is . usual, many admirers and many enemies ; but we 
know not of more than one professed answer, written un- 
der the title of " Medicus Medicatus," by Alexander Ross, 
which was universally neglected by the world. Abroad it* 
was animadverted upon as having an irreligious tendency, 
by Guy Patin, by Tobias Wagner, by Muller, Reiser, 
and Buddeus, and was put into the Index pxpurgatorius. 
At present it will probably be thought that it was both too 
much applauded and too much censured, and that it would 
have been a more useful book had the author's fancy been 
more guided by judgment 

At the time when this book was published, Dr. Browne 
resided at Norwich, where he had settled in 1636, by 
the persuasion of Dr. Lushington, his tutor, who was then 
rector of Barn ham Westgate, in the neighbourhood. It 
is recorded by Wood, that his practice was very extensive. 
In 1637 he was incorporated M. D. at Oxford. He mar- 
ried in 1641 Mrs. Mileham, of a good family in Norfolk, a 
lady of very amiable character. Dr. Johnson says this mar- 
. riage could not but draw the raillery of contemporary wits 
upon a man, who had been just wishing, in his new book, 
" that we might procreate, lika trees, without conjunc- 
tion ;" and had lately declared, that " the whole world 
was made for man, but only the twelfth part of man for 
woman," and that " man is the whole world, but woman 
only the rib or crooked part of man." They lived happily, 
however, together for forty -one years, during which she 
bore him ten children, of whom one son and three daugh- 
ters outlived their parents. She survived him two years. 

In 1646, he printed " Enquiries into vulgar and com- 
mon Errors," small folio, a work, says his biographer, 



J44 BROWN E. 

^hich, as it arose not from fancy and invention, but from* 
observation and books, and contained not a single discourse 
of one continued tenor, but an enumeration of many un- 
connected particulars, must have been the collection of 
years; and the. effect of a design early formed, and long 
pursued. It is, indeed, adds the same writer, to be? 
wished, that he had longer delayed the publication, and 
added what tbe remaining part of his life might have fur- 
nished. He published in 1673 the sixth edition, witH 
some improvements. This book, like his former, was re- 
ceived with great applause, was answered by Alexander 
Ross, and translated into Dutch and German, and after- 
wards into French. It might, Dr. Johnson thinks, now be 
proper to reprint it with notes, partly supplemental arid 
partly emendatory, to subjoin those discoveries which the 
industry of the last age has made, and correct those mis-' 
lakes which the author has committed, not by idleness oir 
negligence, but for want of Boyle's and Newton's phi- 
losophy. 

The reputation of Browne encouraged some low writer . 
to publish, under his name, a book called " Nature's ca- 
binet unlocked," translated, according to Wood, from the 
physics of Magirus, but Browne advertised against it. In 
1658, the discovery of some ancient urns in Norfolk gav6 
him occasion to write " Hydriotaphia, Urn-burial, or a 
discourse of Sepulchral Urns," 8vo, in which he treats 
with his usual learning, on the funeral rites of the ancient 
nations ; exhibits their various treatment of the dead ; and , 
examines the substances found in these Norfolk urns. 
There is, perhaps, none of his works which better ex- 
emplifies his reading or memory. To this treatise was 
added " The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincunxial lo- 
zenge, or net-work plantation of the ancients, artificially' 
naturally, mystically considered." This is a more fanciful 
performance than the other, but still it exhibits the fancy 
of a man of learning. Besides these, he left some papers 
prepared for the press, of which two collections have been ~ 
published, the first by Dr. Thomas Tennison, afterwards 
archbishop of Canterbury, in 1684, 8vo, entitled, "A 
Collection of Miscellaneous Tracts," and these, with what 
had been published in his life-time, were printed in one 
vol. fol. in 1686. In 1690 his son, Dr. Edward Browne,* 
of whom we have already spoken, published a single tract, 
entitled " A Letter to a friend upon occasion of tbe death 



BROWNE* 14S 

of his intimate friend/' 8vo. The second collection was 
of the "Posthumous Works," edited in 1722 by Owen 
Brigstock, esq. his grandson by marriage. 

To the life of this learned man, there remains little to 
be added, but that in 1665 he was chosen honorary fellow • 
of the college of physicians ; and in 1671, received at Nor- . 
wich the honour of knighthood from Charles II. In his 
seventy-sixth year, he was seized with a colic, which, after 
having tortured him about a week, put an end to his life 
at Norwich, Oct. 19, 1682. Some of his last words were 
expressions of submission to the will of God, and fearless- 
ness of death. He was buried in the church of St. Peter, 
Man croft, in Norwich, with a Latin inscription on a mural 
monument. 

In 1716 there appeared a book of his in 12mo, entitled 
" Christian Morals," published from the original and cor- 
rect manuscript of the author, by John Jeffery, I>. D. arch- 
deacon of Norwich. It was dedicated by our author's; 
daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Littleton, to David, earl of Bu- 
chan. Of this a second edition was published in 1756 by 
Mr. John Payne, bookseller, and one of Dr. Johnson's early 
patrons, who solicited him to write a life of sir Thomas. 
This, of which we have availed ourselves in the preceding 
account, may be classed among Dr. Johnson's best biogra- 
phical performances, and the present article may be very 
properly concluded with his character of Browne's works* 
After mentioning the various writers who have noticed 
Browne, he adds, "But it is not on the praises of others, 
But on his own writings, that he is to depend for the es- 
teem of posterity; of which he will not easily be deprived, * 
while learning shall have any reverence among men : for 
there is no science in which he does not discover some 
skill ; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or sacred, 
abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cul- 
tivated with success. His exuberance o^ knowledge, and 
plenitude of ideas, sometimes obstruct the tendency of his 
reasoning, and the clearness of his decisions : on whatever 
subject he employed his mind, there started up imme- 
diately so many images before him, that he lost one by 
grasping another. His memory supplied him with so many 
illustrations, parallel or dependent notions, that he was \ 
always starting into collateral considerations : but the spi- 
rit and vigour of his pursuit always gives delight ; and the 
reader follows him, without reluctance; through his mazes,, 

Vol. VII. L 



146 BR O W N & 

in themselves flowery and pleasing, and ending at the 
point originally in view.— To have great excellencies, and 
great faults, * magna virtutes nee minora vitia, is the 
poesy,' says our author, ' of the best natures. 9 This poesy 
may be properly applied to the style of Browne : it is' 
vigorous^ but rugged; it is learned, but pedantic; it is 
deep, but obscure ; it strikes, but does not please ; it com- 
mands, but does not allure: his tropes are harsh, and hi* 
combinations uncouth. He fell into an age, in which our 
language began to lose the stability which it had obtained 
in the time of Elizabeth; and was considered by every" 
writer as a subject on which he might try his plastic skill, 
by moulding it according to his own fancy. Milton, in 
consequence of this encroaching licence, began to intro- 
duce the Latin idiom ; and Browne, though he gave less 
disturbance to our structures and phraseology, yet poured 
in a multitude of exotic words ; many, indeed, useful and? 
significant, which, if rejected, must be supplied by cir- 
cumlocution, such as commensality for the state of many 
living at the same table ; but many superfluous, as a para- 
logical for an unreasonable doubt ; and some so obscure, 
that they conceal his meaning rather than explain it, as 
arthritic a I analogies for parts that serve some animals in the 
place of joints. — His style is, indeed, a tissue of many lan- 
guages ; a mixture of heterogeneous words, brought toge- 
ther from distant regions, with terms originally appro- 
priated to one art, and drawn by violence into the service 
of another. He must, however, be confessed to have aug- 
mented our philosophical diction ; and in defence of his 
uncommon words and expressions, we must consider, that 
he had uncommon sentiments, and was not content to ex- 
press in many words that idea for which any language 
could supply a single term. — But his innovations are some- 
times pleasing, and his temerities happy : he has many 
verba ardentia, forcible expressions, which he would never 
have found, but by venturing to the utmost verge of pro- 
priety ; and flights which would never have been reached, 
but by one who had very little fear of the shame of fall- 
ing." 

The last thing which Dr. Johnson has done, in his life of 
sir Thomas Browne, is to vindicate him from the charge 
of infidelity ; and having fully shewn the falsity of this 
accusation, the ingenious biographer concludes in the fol^ 
lowing words ; " The opinions of every man must be 



BROWNE. 147 

learned from himself : concerning his practice, it is safest 
to trust the evidence of others. Where these testimonies 
concur, no higher degree of historical certainty can be ob- 
tained ; and they apparently concur to prove, that Browne 
was a zealous adherent to the faith of Christ, that he lived 
in obedience to his laws, and died in confidence of his 
mercy." * 

BROWNE (William), an ingenious English poet, was 
the son of Thomas Browne of Tavistock in Devonshire, 
gent, who, according to Prince, in his Worthies of Devon, 
was most probably a descendant from the knightly family 
of Browne of Brownes-Ilash in the parish of Langtree near 
Great Torrington in Devonshire. His son was born in 
1590, and became a student of Exeter college,' Oxford, 
about the beginning of the reign of James I. After making 
a great progress in classical and polite literature, he re- 
moved to the Inner Temple, where his attention tothg 
study of the law was frequently interrupted by his de- 
votiotvtothe muses. In his twenty ithird year (1613) he 
published, in folio, the first part of -his "Britannia's Pas* 
torals," which, according to the custom of the time, was 
ushered into the world with so many poetical eulogies, 
that he appears to have secured, at a very early age, the 
friendship, and favour of the most celebrated of his con* 
temporaries, among whom we find the names of Seldfen 
and Drayton. To these he afterwards added Davies of 
Hereford, Ben Johson, and others. That he wrote some 
of these pastorals before he had attained his twentieth year, 
has be£n conjectured from a passage in Book I. Song V. ; 
but there is sufficient internal evidence, independent of 
these lines, that much of them was the offspring of a ju~ 
venile fancy. In the following year, he published in 8vo, 
u The Shepherd's Pipe,*' in seven eclogues. In the fourth 
of these he laments the death of his friend Mr. Thomas' 
Manwood, under the name of Philarete, the precursor, as 
some critics assert, of Milton's Lycidas. * 

In 1616, he published the second part of his "Britan- 
nia's Pastorals," recommended as before, by his poetical 
friends, whose praises he repaid with liberality in the body 
of thfe work. The two parts were reprinted in 8vo in 
1625, and procured him, as is too frequently the case, 

i 

1 Life by Dr. Johnso!i.-~Bi6$. Brit— Ath. Ox. vol. II.— Watson's Halifax* 
p. 45S. 

£2' 



148 BROWNE. 

more fame than profit. About'a year before this, heap- 
pears to have taken leave of the muses, and returned to 
Exeter college, in the capacity of tutor to Robert Dor- 
mer, earl of Caernarvon, a nobleman who fell at the battle 
of Newbury in 1643, while fighting gallantly for his king, 
£t the head of a regiment of horse, and of whom lord Cla- 
rendon has given us a character drawn with his usual dis- 
crimination and fidelity. While guiding the studies of this , 
nobleman, Browne was created master of arts t with this 
honourable notice in the public register, " Vir otnni hu- 
jnana literatura et bonarum artium cognitione instructus." 

After leaving the university with lord Caernarvon, be 
found a liberal patron in William earl of Pembroke, of 
whom likewise we have a most elaborate character in Cla- 
rendon, some part of which reflects honour on our poet,— 
** He was a great lover of his country, and of the religion 
and justice, which he believed could only support it : and 
his friendships were only tilth men of those principles. And 
as his conversation was most with men of the most pregnant 
parts and understanding ; so towards any such, who needed 
support, or encouragement, though unknown, if fairly re- 
commended to him, he was very liberal." This nobleman, 
who had a respect for Browne probably founded on the 
circumstances intimated in the above character, took him 
into his family, and employed him in such a manner, ac- 
cording to Wood, that he was enabled to p'urchase an es- 
tate. Little more, however, is known of his history, nor 
is the exact time of his death ascertained. Wood finds 
that one of both his names, of Ottery St. Mary in Devon- 
shire, died in the winter of 1645, but knows not whether 
this be the same. He hints at his person in these words, 
"as he had a little body, so a great mind; 9 ' a high charac- 
ter from this biographer who had no indulgence for poeti- 
cal failings. 

Browne has experienced the fate of. many of bis con- 
temporaries* whose fame died with them, and whose writ- 
ings haye been left to be revived, under many disadvan- 
tages, by an age of refined taste and curiosity. The civil 
wars which raged about the time of bis death, and whose 
consequences continued to operate for many years after, 
diverted the public mind from the concerns of poetry. The 
lives of the poets were forgotten, and their works perished 
through neglect or wantonness. We have no edition of 
Browne's poems from 1625 to 1772, when Mr. Thomas 



BROWNE, 149 

Davies, the bookseller, was assisted by some of his learned 
friends in publishing them, in three small volumes. The 
advertisement, prefixed to the first volume, informs us that 
the gentlemen of the king's library procured the use of the 
first edition of " Britannia's Pastorals," which had several 
manuscript notes on the margin, written by the rev. Wil- 
liam Thomson, one of the few scholars of his time who 
studied the antiquities* of English poetry. Mr. Thomas 
Wartbn contributed his copy of the " Shepherd's Pipe,'* 
which was at that time so scarce that no other could be 
procured. Mr. Price, the librarian of the Bodleian li- 
brary, sent a correct copy of the Elegy upon the death of 
Henry prince of Wales, from a manuscript in that repo- 
sitory ; and Dr. Farmer furnished a transcript of the " Inner 
Temple Mask" from the library of Emanuel college, which 
had never before been printed. With such helps, a cor- 
rect edition might have been expected, but the truth is, 
that the few editions of ancient poets, (Suckling, Marvell, 
Carew, &c.) which Davies undertook to print, are ex- 
tremely deficient in correctness. Of this assertion, which 
the comparison of a few pages with any of the originals 
will amply confirm, we have a very striking instance in the 
present work, in which two entire pages of the Book I, of 
Britannia's Pastorals were omitted. 

His works exhibit abundant specimens of true inspira-> 
tion ; .and had his judgment been equal to his powers of 
invention, or had he yielded less to the bad taste of his 
age, or occasionally met with a dritic instead of a flatterer, 
he would have been entitled to a much higher rank in the 
class of genuine poets. His Pastorals form a vast store- 
bouse of rural imagery and description, and in personifying 
the passions and affections, he exhibits pictures that are 
not only faithful, but striking, just to nature and to feeling, 
and frequently heightened by original touches of the pa- 
thetic and sublime,' and by many of those wild graces 
which true genius only can exhibit. It is not improbable 
that he studied Spenser, as well as the Italian -poets. To 
the latter he owes something of elegance and something 
of extravagance. From the former he appears to have 
caught the idea of a story like the Faery Queen e, although 
. it wants regularity of plan ; and he follows his great model 
in a profusion of allegorical description and romantic land* 
scape. 



*50 BROWNE. 

His versification, which is so generally harmonious/ that 
where he fails it may be imputed to carelessness, is at the 
same time so various as to relax the imagination with sper 
ciraens of every kind, and he seems to pass from the one 
to the other with an ease that we do not often find among the 
Writers of lengthened poems. Those, however, who are 
jn search of faulty rhimes, of foolish conceits, of vulgar 
ideas, and of degrading imagery, will not lose their pains. 
He was, among other qualities, a man of humour, and his 
humour is often exceedingly extravagant. So mixed, in- 
deed, is his style, and so whimsical his flights, that we 
are sometimes reminded of Swift in all his grossness, and 
sometimes of Milton in the plenitude, of his inspiration. 
Mr. Warton has remarked that the morning landscape of 
the L 1 Allegro is an assemblage of the same objects which. 
Browne had before collected in his Britannia's Pastorals, 
B; IV. Song IV. beginning 

" By this had chanticlere," &c. 

. It has already been noticed that Phitarete was the pre* 
cursor of Lycidas, but what Mr. Warton asserts of Comus 
deserves some consideration. After copying the exqui- 
site Ode which Circe, in the Inner Temple Mask, sings 
as a charm to drive away sleep from Ulysses, Mr. Warton 
adds, " In praise of this song, it will be sufficient to say 
that it reminds us of some favourite touches in Milton's 
Comus, to which it perhaps gave birth. Indeed, one 
cannot help observing here in general, although the ob- 
servation more properly belongs to another place, that a 
masque thus recently exhibited on the story of Circe, which 
there is reason to think had acquired some popularity, 
suggested to Milton the hint of a masque on the story of 
Comus. It would be superfluous to point out minutely 
the absolute similarity of the two characters ; they both deal 
in incantations conducted by the same mode of operation, 
and producing effects exactly parallel." 

Without offering any objection to these remarks, it may 
still be necessary to remind the reader of a circumstance 
to which this excellent critic has not adverted, namely, 
that the Inner Temple Mask appears to have been exhibited 
about the year 1620, when Milton was a boy of only 
twelve years old, and remained in manuscript until Dr. 
Farmer procured a copy for the edition of 1772 ; and that 
Milton produced his Comus at the age of twenty-sir. It 



BROWNE. 151 

i 

remains, therefore, for some future conjecturer to deter- 
mine on the probability of Milton's having seen Browne's 
manuscript in the interim. 

Prince informs us, that " as he had honoured his country 
with his sweet and elegant Pastorals, so it was expected, and 
he also entreated, a little farther to grace it by his drawing 
out the line of his poetic ancestors, beginning in Joseph 
Iscanus, and ending in himself : a noble design, if it 
had- been effected." Josephus Iscanus was Joseph of 
Exeter, who flourished in the thirteenth century, and 
wrote two epic poems in Latin heroics. Had Browne 
begun much later, he would have conferred a very high 
obligation on posterity. Collections of poetry are of very 
ancient date, but very little is known with certainty of the 
•lives of English poets, and that little must now be reco- 
vered with great difficulty. 

It yet remains to be noticed that some poems of Browne 
are supposed to exist in manuscript. Mr. Nichols thinks 
that Warburtoh the herald had some which were sold with 
the rest of his .library, about the year 1759, or 1760. 
Mr. Park, also, in a supplementary note to the Biog. 
Britannica, brings proof that George Withers had some 
share in composing the " Shepherd's Pipe." They were 
contemporaries, and nearly of the same age. * 

BROWNE (Sir William), a physician of the last cen- 
tury, and a man of a singular and whimsical cast of mind, 
was born in 1692, and in 1707 was entered of Peter- 
house, Cambridge, where he took the degrees, B. A. 1710, 
M. A. 1714, and M. D. 1721, and soon after settled at 
Lynn, in Norfolk, where he published Dr. Gregory's 
41 Elements of catoptrics and dioptrics," translated from 
the Latin original, to which he added: 1. A method for 
finding the foci of all specula, as well as lenses univer- 
sally ; a9 also magnifying or lessening a given object by a 
given speculum, or lens, in any assigned proportion. 
2. A solution of those problems which Dr. Gregory has 
left undemonstrated. 3. A particular account of micro- 
scopes and telescopes, from Mr. Huygens ; with the dis- 
coveries made by catoptrics and dioptrics. By an epigram, 
many of which he provoked, he appears to have been the 
champion of the fair sex at Lynn, in 1748. On one oc- 

1 English Poets, edit 1810, rol. VI. — Biofr Brit. — Gen, Diet. —Prince's 
Worthies.— Wood's Athens. 



15B BHOWNE. 

casion, a pamphlet having been written against him, he nailed 
it up against his house-door. Having acquired a competency 
by his profession, he removed to Queeu-square, Ormond- 
street, London, where he resided till his death, which 
happened March 10, 1774, at the age of 82. A great 
number of lively essays, both in prose and verse, the pro- 
duction of his pen, were printed and circulated among his 
friends. Among these were: 1. " Ode in imitation of 
Horace," ode 3, lib. iii. addressed to the right hon. sir 
Robert Walpole, on ceasing to be minister, Feb* 6, 1741 ; 
designed, he says, as a just panegyric on a great minister, 
the glorious revolution, protestant succession, and prin- 
ciples of liberty. To which was added the original ode, 
" defended in commentariolo." It was inscribed to George 
earl of Orford, as an acknowledgement of the favours con- 
ferred by his lordship as well as by his father and grand- 
father. On the first institution of the militia, our author 
was appointed one of the earl's deputy-lieutenants, and 
was named in his lordship's first commission of the peace. 
2. Opuscula varia utriusque linguae, medicinam ; medi- 
corum collegium ; literas, utrasque academies ; empiricos, 
eorum cultores; solicitatorem, praestigiatorem ; poeticen, 
criticen ; patronum, patriam ; religionem, libertatem, 
spectantia. Cum praefatione eorum editionem defendente. 
Auctore D. Gulielmo Browne, equite aurato, M. D. utri- 
usque et medicorum et physicorum S. R. S. 1765, 4to. 
This little volume (which was dated " Ex area dicta re* 
ginali, mdcclxv, hi nonas Januarias, ipso Ciceronis et 
aiictoris natali") contained, I. Oratio Harveiana, in theatro 
collegii medicorum Londinensis habita, 1751. II. A vin- 
dication of the college of physicians, in reply to solicitor- 
general Murray, 1753. III. Ode in imitation of Horace^ 
Ode I. addressed to the duke of Montague. With a new* 
interpretation, in commentariolo, 1765. IV. The Ode f 
^bove-mentioned, to sir Robert Walpole. Some time be- 
fore, sir William had published odes in imitation of Ho- 
race ; addressed to sir John Dolben, to sir John Turner^ 
to doctor Askew, and to Robert lord Walpole. 3. " Ap- 

Eendix altera ad opuscula; oratiunqula, collegii medicorum 
ondinensis cathedrae valedicens. In comitiis, postridie 
divi Michaelis, mdcclxxvii. ad collegii administrationem 
renovandam designatis; machinaque incendiis extinguendis 
japta contra permissos rebelles munitis ; habita a D. Gu- 
U^lmo JJrowne, e<juite aurato, praeside," 4768, *to, TM* 



BROWNE. 155 

farewell oration con£ains so many curious particulars of sir 
William's life, that the reader will not be displeased to see 
some extracts from it, and with his own spelling. " The 
manly age and inclination, with conformable studies, I dili- 
gently applied to the practice of physic in the country ; 
where, as that age adviseth, I sought riches and friendships* 
But afterwards, being satiated with friends, whom truth, not 
flattery, had procured ; satiated with riches, which Galen, 
not fortune, had presented ; I resorted immediately to this 
college : where, in further obedience to the same adviser, 
I might totally addict myself to the service of honour. 
Conducted by your favour, instead of my own merit, I 
have been advanced, through various degrees of honour, 
a most delightful climax indeed, even to the very highest 
of all which the whole profession of physic hath to confer. 
In this chair, therefore, twice received from the elects, 
shewing their favour to himself, he confesseth much more 
than to the college, your president 

' Acknowledges that he has happy been ; 
And, now, content with acting this sweet scene, 
Chooses to make his exit, like a guest 
Retiring pamper d from a plenteous feast :* 

in, order to attach himself and the remainder of his life, no 
longer, as before, solely to the college,, but, by turns, 
also to the medicinal springs of his own country ; although, 
as a physician, never unmindful of his duty, yet after his 
own manner, with hilarity rather than gravity ; to enjoy 
liberty, more valuable than silver and gold, as in his own 
right, because that of mankind, not without pride, which 
ever ought to be its inseparable companion. 

' Now the free foot shall dance its fav'rite round.*, 

Behold an instance of human ambition ! not to be satiated 
but by the conquest of three, as it were, medical worlds ; 
lucre in the country, honour in the college, pleasure at 
medicinal springs ! I would, if it were possible, be de- 
lightful and useful to ail : to myself even totally, and 
equal: to old age, though old, diametrically opposite; 
not a censor and chastiser, but a commender and encou- 
rager, of youth. I would have mine such as, in the satire, 

* Ciispus's hoary entertaining age, 
Whose wit and manners mild alike engage.' 

The age of presiding, by the custom of our prsedeces- 
§Qrs ; was generally a lustrum, five years; although our 



154 BROWNE. 

Sloane, now happy, like another Nestor, lived to see three 
ages, both as president and as man. But two years more 
than satisfy me : for, that each of the elects may in his 
turn hold the sceptre of prudence, far more desirable than 
power, given by Caius, which the law of justice and aequity 
recommends, 

* No tenure pleases longer than a. year— * 

But in truth, among such endearing friendships with you, 
such delightful conversations, such useful communications, 
with which this amiable situation hath blessed me, one or 
two things, as is usual, have happened not at all to my 
satisfaction. One, that, while most studious of peace my- 
self, I hoped to have preserved the peace of the college 
secure and intire, I too soon found that it was not other- 
wise to be sought for than by war : but even after our first 
adversary, because inconsiderable, was instantly over- 
thrown, and his head completely cut off by the hand of 
the law, yet from the same neck, as if Hydra, had been 
our enemy, so many other heads broke out, yea, and with, 
inhuman violence broke into this very senate, like mon- 
sters swimming in pur medical sea, whom I beheld with 
unwilling indeed, but with dry, or rather fixed eyes, be- 
cause not suspecting the least mischief from thence to the 
college, and therefore laughing, so far from fearing. The 
other, in reality, never enough to be lamented, that, while 
I flattered myself with having, by my whole power of per- 
suasion, in the room of Orphaean music, raised the Croo- 
nian medical lecture as it were from the shades into day, 
if there could be any faith in solemn promises ; that faith 
being, to my very great wonder, violated, this lecture,, 
like another Eurydice, perhaps looked after by me too 
hastily, beloved by me too desperately, instantly slipped 
back again, and fled indignant to the shades below/ 9 

He used to say he resigned the presidentship because 
he would not stay to be beat : alluding to the attack of the 
licentiates. 

The active part taken by sir William Browne in the 
contest with the licentiates, occasioned his being intro- 
duced by Mr. Foote in his " Devil upon two sticks." 
Upon Footers exact representation of him with his identical 
wig and coat, odd figure, and glass stiffly applied to his 
eye, he sent him a card complimenting him on having so 
happily represented 4iim ; but, as he had forgot his muff, 
he had sent him his own. This good-natured method of 



BROWNE. i55 

resenting, disarmed Foote. His next publication was: 
.4. " A farewell Oration, &c.". a translation of the pre* 
ceding article, 1768, 4to. 5. " Fragmen turn Isaac i Haw- 
kins BrQWQe* arm. sive Anti~Bolinbrokius, liber primus* 
Translated for a second Religio Medici," 1768, 4to. The 
author modestly calls this " a very hasty performance ;" 
and says, " }n my journey from Oxford to Bath, meeting 
with continued rain, which kept me three days on the road, 
in compassion to my servants and horses ; and having my 
/fiend a pocket companion, I found it the best entertain- 
ment my tedious baiting could afford to begin and finish 
this translation/' This was dated Oct. 24, 1768 ; and his 
second part was completed on .the 20th of the following 
oionth : " My undertaking, 1 ' he says, " to complete, as 
well as I could, the Fragment of my friend, hath appeared 
to me so very entertaining a work, even amongst the most 
charming delights and most cheerful conversations at 
Bath ; that I have used more expedition, if the very many 
avocations there be considered, in performing this, than 
in that former translation ;" and to this part was prefixed 
a congratulatory poem " To Isaac Hawkins Browne, esq. 
son of his deceased friend, on his coming of age, Dec. 7, 
1766."-^-The good old knight's Opuscula were continually 
on the increase. The very worthy master of a college at 
Cambridge, lately living, relates a story of him, that wait- 
ing for sir William in some room at the college, where he 
was come to place a near relation, he found him totally 
absorbed in thought, over a fine 4to volume of these 
Opuscula, which he constantly, he said, carried about with 
bim, that they might be benefited by frequent revisals. 

His portrait, in his latter days, is very faithfully drawn 
by Warburtpn, in one of his letters to bishop Hurd. 
" When you see Dr. Heberden, pray communicate to him 
an unexpected honour I have lately received. The other 
day, word was. brought me from below, that one sir Wil- 
liam Browne sent up his name, and should be glad to kiss 
my band. I judged it to be the famous physician, whom 
I had never seen, nor had the honour to know. When I 
came down into the drawing-room, I was accosted by a 
little*, round, well-fed gentleman, with a large muff in 
one hand, a small Horace, open, in the other, and a 
spying-glass dangling in a black ribbon at his button. 
After the first salutation, he informed me that his visit was 
indeed to me ; but principally, and in the first place, to 



156 BROWNt 

Prior-Park, which had so inviting a prospect from below ; 
and he did not doubt but, on examination, it would suffi- 
ciently repay the trouble he had given himself of coming 
up to it on foot We then took our chairs ; and the first 
thing he did or said, was to propose a doubt to me con- 
cerning a passage in Horace, which all this time he had 
still open in bis hand. Before I could answer, he gave me 
the solution of this long-misunderstood passage ; and, in 
support of his explanation, had the charity to repeat his 
own paraphrase of it in English verse, just come hot, as 
he said, from the brain. When this and chocolate were 
over, having seen all he wanted of me, be desired to see 
something more of the seat, and particularly what he called 
the monument, by which I understood him to mean the 
Prior's tower. Accordingly, I ordered a servant to attend 
him thither, and when he had satisfied his curiosity, either 
to let him out from the Park above, into the Down, or 
from the garden below into the road. Which he chose, I 
never asked ; and so this honourable visit ended. Hereby 
you will understand that the design of all this was to be 
admired. And indeed he had my admiration to the full ; 
but for nothing so much, as for his being able at past eighty 
to perform this expedition on foot, in no good weather, 
and with all the alacrity of a boy, both in body and mind.'* 
This portrait is correct in every thing but the age, sir 
William being only then (1767) seventy-five. 

On a controversy for a raker in the parish where he lived 
in London, carried on so warmly as to open taverns for 
men, and coffee-house breakfasts for ladies, he exerted 
himself greatly ; wondering a man hred at two universities 
should be so little regarded. (He had been expelled one, 
and therefore taken degrees at another.) A parishioner 
answered : " he had a calf that sucked two cows, and a pro- ' 
digious great one it was." He used to frequent the annual 
ball at the ladies' boarding-school, €lueen-square, merely 
as a neighbour, a good-natured man, and forid of the com- 
pany of sprightly young folks. A dignitary of the church 
being there one day to see his daughter dance, and finding 1 
this upright figure stationed there, told him he believed he 
was Hermippus redivrvtis, who lived anhelitu pueUarum. At 
the age of eighty, on St. Luke's day, 177 1 , he came to Bat- 
son's coffee-house in his laced coat and band, and fringed 
white gloves, to shew himself to Mr. Crosby, then lord-mayor, 
A gentleman present observing that he looked very well, 



BROWNE. 157 

he replied* u be had neither wife nor debts.'* He next; 
published, " Fragmentum I. Hawkins completum," 1769, 
4to. 7. " Appendix ad Opuscula;'* six Odes, 1770, 4to, 
comprising : I. De senectute. Ad amicum D. Rogerum 
Long, apud Cantabrigienses, aulee custodem Pcmbrokianse, 
theologum, . astronomum, doctissimum, jucundissimum, 
annum nonagesimum agentem, scripta. Adjecta versione 
Anglica. Abamico D. Guliel mo Browne, annum agente 
fere octogesimum. II. De choreis, et festivitate. Ad 
nobiitssimum ducem Leodensem, diem Walliae principis 
natalem acidulisTunbrigiensibus celebrantem, scripta. A 
theologo festivo, D. Georgio Lewis. Adjecta versione 
Anglic& ab amico, D. Gulielmo Browne. III. De ingenio, 
et jucunditate. Ad Lodoicum amicum, sacerdotem Can* 
tianum, in geniosissi mum, jucundissimum, scripta. Ad- 
jecta versione Anglic^. A. D. Gulielmo Browne, E. A. O. 
M. L. P. S. R. S. IV. De Wilkesio, et libertate. Ad doc- 
torem Thomam Wilson, theologum doctissimum, liber- 
rimum, tarn mutui amici, Wilkesii* amicum, quairi suum, 
scripta. V. De otio inedentibus debito. Ad Moysceum 
amicum, medicum Bathoniae doctissimum, humanissimum, 
6cripta. VI. De potiore metallis libertate : et omnia vin- 
cente fortitudine. Ad eorum utriusque patronum, Gultel- 
mum ilium Pittium, omni et titulo et laude majorem, 
scripta. 8. Three more Odes, 1771, 4to. 9. "A Pro- 
posal on our Coin, to remedy all present, and prevent all 
future disorders. To which are prefixed, preceding pro- 
posals of sir John Barnard, and of William Shirley, esq. 
on the same subject With remarks," 1774, 4to, dedicated 
" To the most revered memory of the right honourable 
Arthur Onslow, speaker of the house of commons during 
thirty- three years ; for ability, judgement, eloquence, in- 
tegrity, impartiality, never to be forgotten or excelled ; 
who sitting in the gallery, on a committee of the house, the 
day of publishing this proposal, and seeing the author 
there, sent to speak with him, by the chaplain ; and, after 
applauding his performance, desired a frequent corre- 
spondence, and honoured him with particular respect, all 
the rest of his life, this was, with most profound venera- 
tion, inscribed." 10. A New-Year's Gift. A problem 
and' demonstration on the XXXIX Articles," 1772, 4to. 
" This problem and demonstration," he informs us, "though 
now first published, on account of the praesent contro- 
versy concerning these articles, owe their birth to ray 



15a BROWNE. 

being called upon to subscribe them, at an early period of 
life. For in my soph's year, 1711, being ar student art 
Peter-house, in the university of Cambridge, just nine- 
teen years of age, and having performed all my exercises 
in the schools (and also a first opponency extraordinary to 
an ingenious pupil of his, afterwards Dr. Barnard, pre- 
bendary of Norwich) on mathematical questions, at the 
particular request of Mr. proctor Laughton, of Clare-hall, 
who drew me into it by a promise of the senior optime of 
the year), I was then first informed that subscribing these 
articles was a necessary step to taking my degree of B. A. 
as well as all other degrees. I had considered long be- 
fore at school, and on my admission in 1707, that the uni- 
versal profession of religion must much more concern me 
through life, to provide for my happiness hereafter, than 
the particular profession of physic, which I proposed to 
pursue, to provide for my more convenient existence 
here : and therefore had selected out of the library left by 
my father (who bad himself been a regular physician^ 
educated under the tuition of sir J. Ellis, M. D. afterwards 
master of Caius college), Chillingworth's Religion of a 
Protestant; the whole famous Protestant and Popish con^ 
troversy ; Commentaries on Scripture; and such- other books* 
as suited my purpose. I particularly pitched upon three for 
perpetual pocket-companions ; Bleau's Greek Testament p 
Hippocratis Aphoristica, and Elzevir Horace*;- expecting 
from the first to draw divinity, from the second physic, 
and'from the last good sense and vivacity.- Here I cannot 
forbear recollecting my partiality for St. Luke, because 
he was a physician ; by the particular pleasure I took irr 
perceiving the superior purity of his Greek, over that of 
the other Evangelists. But J did not then know, what I 
was afterwards taught by Dr. Freind's learned History of 
Physic, that this purity was owiug to his being a physician,* 
and consequently conversant with our Greek fathers of 
physic. Being thus fortified, I thought myself as well 
prepared for an encounter with these articles, as so young 
a person could reasonably be expected. I therefore deter-* 
mined to read them over as carefully and critically as I 
could ; and upon this, met with so many difficulties, ut- 
terly irreconcileable by me to the divine original, that I 

* In his will, he says, " On my coffin, when, in the grave, I desire may be, 
deposited in its leather case, or coffiu, my pocket Elzevir Horace, Cornea 
Vise Viteque dulcis et utilis, worn out with and by m«." 



BROWNE. 159 

almost despaired of ever being able to subscribe them. 
But, not to be totally discouraged, I resolved to re-con- 4 
sider them with redoubled diligence ; and then at last had 
the pleasure to discover, in article VI. and XX. what ap- 
peared to my best private judgement and understanding 
a clear solution of all the difficulties, and an absolute 
defeazance of that exceptionable authority, which incon- 
sistently with scripture they seem to assume. I subscribe 
my name to whatever I offer to the public, that I may be 
answerable for its being my sincere sentiment : ever openy 
however, to conviction, by superior reason and argument. . 

William Brow;nb." 
His next was a republication. 11. The pill plot. To 
doctor Ward, a quack of merry memory, written at Lynn, 
Nov. 30, 1734, 1772, 4to. 12. " Corrections in verse, 
from the father of the college, on son jCadogan's Gout 
dissertation ; containing false physic, false logic, false phi* 
losophy," 1772, 4to. Although these corrections are jo- 
cular, it is not intended that they should be less, but 
more sensibly felt, for that very reason : according to the 
rule of Horace, 

■ i y Ridiculum acri 
Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res. 

AD FIL1VM. 

Vapulans lauda baculum paternum, 
Invidum, filj, fuge suspicari, 
Cujus Tf denum trepidavit aetas 

Claudere lustrum. 

The author repeated these verses to Dr. Cadogan himself, 
who censured their want of fhyme; he answered, that 
" the gout had a fourth cause, study, which was never his 
case : if he did not understand law and gavelkind, he would 
not talk to him ; for there were two sorts of gout, free- 
hold and copyhold ; the first where it was hereditary, the 
otherwhere a person by debauchery took it up." 13. 
g * 8peech to the Royal Society," 1772, 4to. 14. " Elogy 
and address," 1773, 4to. 15. A Latin version of Job, 
unfinished, 4to. 

We shall subjoin a well-known epigram by sir William 
Browne, which the critics have pronounced to be a good 
dne; 

'* The king to Oxford sent a troop of hors*, 
For tones own no argument but force ; 
With equal skill, to Cambridge books he sent, 
For whigs admit no force but argument/' 






160 BROWNE. 

Bat the following, by an Oxonian, which gave rise to thai 
by sir William, is at least as good : 

" The king, observing with judicious eyes, 

The state of both his universities, 

To. Oxford sent & troop of horse ; and why ? 

That learned body wanted loyalty : 

To Cambridge books, as very wll discerning, 

How much that loyal body wanted learniag." 

Sir William Browne's will, an attested copy of which is 
now before us, is not the least singular of his compositions, 
and may be said to be written in Greek, Latin, and Eng- 
lish. From many of the legacies, however, and particu- 
larly his mode of introducing them, we perceive the kind- 
ness and benevolence of his heart, which, in the circle of 
his more immediate friends, probably atoned for his many- 
oddities. The above account of his works sufficiently 
shows that he was a very weak man, and with all the con- 
ceit which usually accompanies defective judgment. With- 
the periodical critics, he was long an object of ridicule, 
and conquered them only by writing faster than they had- 
patience to read. Unsuccessful, however, as he was him- 
self, he determined that better writers should not be with- 
out encouragement, and therefore by his will, directed 
three gold medals, of five guineas eafcb, to be given yearly 
to three undergraduates of Cambridge on the Commence- 
ment day, when the exercises are publicly read, and copies 
of them sent, by the successful candidates, to sir Martin 
Folkes, his grandson by his only daughter. The first, to 
him who writes the best Greek ode in imitation of Sappho ; 
the second for the best ode in imitation of Horace,; the. 
third for the best Greek and Latin epigrams, the former 
after the manner of Anthologia, the [atter after the model 
of Martial. These have been adjudged since 1775. He 
also left a perpetual rent charge of 21/. per annum, upon 
sundry estates, for founding a scholarship, which is tenable 
for seven years; but the possessor, if of another college,, 
must remove to the founder's college, Peter-house^ and .i 
reside there every entire term during his under-graduate- 
ship. ' " 

. BROWNRIG, or BROUNRIG (Ralph), bishop o( r 
Exeter, was born at Ipswich in Suffolk, in 1592. His fa- . 
ther, who was a merchant of that place, dying when^he 

I life in the preceding edit, of this Dictionary.— Nicholas Life of Bawyef. 

*• " ** 



B R O W N R I G, 161 

> 

was bat a few weeks old, his mother took due cafe of his 
education, in which he made a very considerable progress. * 
At the age of fourteen, he was sent to Pembroke-hall in 
Cambridge, of which he successively becaihe schola* and 
fellow ; and there he distinguished himself by his facetious 
and inoffensive wit, his eloquence, and his great skill and 
knowledge in philosophy, history, poetry, &c. He took 
his master's degree in 1617, B. D. in 1621, and D. D. in 
1626. He was appointed prevaricator when James I. 
visited the university, and discharged that employment to 
the universal admiration of the whole audience. His first 
preferments were, the rectory of Barley in Hertfordshire, 
and a prebend of Ely in 1621, to both which he was col- 
lated by Dr. Nicholas Felton, bishop of Ely. July 15, 1628, 
he was incorporated doctor of divinity at Oxford. On the 
21st of September, 1629, he was collated to the prebend 
of Tachbrook, in the cathedral church of Lichfield, which 
he quitted September 19, 1631, when he was admitted to 
the archdeaconry of Coventry. He was likewise master of 
Catherine-hall in Cambridge, and proved a* great benefit 
and ornament both to that college and the whole univer- 
sity: In 1637, 1638, 1643> and L644, he executed the 
office of vice-chancellor^ to the universal satisfaction of all 
people, and to his own great credit. In 1641, he was 
presented to the eleventh stall or prebend in the church of 
Durham, by Dr. Thomas Morton, bishop of that diocese, 
to whom he was chaplain. Upon the translation of Dr. 
Joseph Hall to the bishopric of Norwich, Dr. Brownrig was 
nominated to succeed him in the see of Exeter, in 1041, 
Accordingly he was elected March 31, 1642; confirmed 
May 14 ; consecrated the day following; and installed the 
1st of June. But the troubles that soon after followed, 
did not permit him long to enjoy that dignity. Before the 
beginning of them, he was much esteemed, and highly 
commended, by his relation John Pym, and others of the 
presbyterian stamp : but they forsook him, only because 
pe was a bishop ; and suffered him* to be deprived of his 
revenues, so that he was almost reduced to want. Nay, 
once he was assaulted, and like to have been stoned by the 
tabble, his episcopal character being his only crime. About 
1645, he yas deprived of his mastership of Catherine-hall, 
on account of a sermon preached by him before the uni- 
versity, on the king's inauguration, at some passages of 
which, offence was taken by the parliament pafty ; and 
Voi-VIL M 



162 BROWNRIG, 

neither his piety, gravity, or learning, were sufficient to 
preserve him in his station. Being thus robbed pf all, he 
retired to the house of Thomas Rich, of Sunning, esq. m. 
Berkshire, by whom he was generously entertained : and 
there, and sometimes at London, at Highgate, and St. 
Edmundsbury, spent several years. During this time, he 
had the courage to advise Oliver Cromwell to restore king- 
Charles II. to his just rights, but yet he suffered in his 
reputation, as not being zealous enough for the church. 
About a year before his decease, he was invited to be a 
preacher at the Temple, in London, with a handsome al- 
lowance; and accordingly he went and settled there, in 
good lodgings furnished for htm. But his old distemper, 
the stone, coming upon him with greater violence than 
usual, and being attended with the dropsy and the -in- 
firmities off age, they all together put an end to bis life, on 
the 7th of December, 1659 : he was buried the 17th fol- 
lowing in the Temple church, where there is an epitaph 
over him. He was once married, but never had a child. 
Though he was very elaborate and exact in his composi- 
tions, and completely wrote his sermons, yet he could not 
be persuaded to print any thing in his life-time. Bishop 
Brownrig, as to his person, was tall and comely. The 
majesty of bis presence was so allayed with meekness, can- 
dour, and humility, that no man was farther from any 
thing morose or supercilious. He had a great deal of wit, 
as well as wisdom ; and was an excellent scholar,- an ad- 
mirable orator, an acute disputant, a pathetic preacher, 
arid a prudent governor, full of judgment, courage, con- 
stancy, and impartiality. He was, likewise, a pereon of 
that soundness of judgment, of that conspicuity for an un- 
spotted life, and of that unsuspected integrity, that he was 
a complete pattern to all. Dr. Gauden, who bad known 
him above thirty years, declares that he never heard of any 
thing said or done by him, which a wise and good man 
would have wished unsaid or undone. Some other parts 
of Dr. Gaudem's character of him maybe supposed to pro** 
ceed from the warmth of friendship. Echard says of him, 
that " he was a great man for the Anti-Arminian cause (for 
he was a rigid Calvinist), yet a mighty champion for the 
liturgy and ordination by bishops : and his death was highly 
lamented by men of all parties." Baxter, Neal, and other 
writers of the nonconformist party, are no lesB warm in his 
praises. He was one of those excellent men with whom 



B R O W N R I G. 163 

archbishop TUlotson cultivated an acquaintance at his first 
coming to London, and by whose preaching and example 
he formed himself. After his death some of Kis sermons 
were published, under the title " Forty Sermons, &c." 
1662, foL and reprinted with the addition of twenty -five, 
making a second volume, 1674, fol. His style is rathet 
better than that of many of his contemporaries. l 

BROWNRIGG (William), an eminent physician; a 
native of Cumberland, was born in 1711, and educated in 
medical science at Leyden, under Albinus, Euler, and 
Boerhaave. Having taken his medical degree in 1737, he 
returned to his native country, and settled at Whitehavert, 
where his practice became very extensive: About twenty 
years before his death, he retired to Of rriathwaite, where 
he died, Jan. 7, 1800, in his eighty-hifitH year, Regretted 
as a man of amiable and endearing virtues, and a most 
skilful physician. . His principal publications were, I. His 
inaugural thesis, " De Praxi medica ineunda," Leyden, 
l7S7 f 4to. 2. " A treatise on the art of making common 
Salt," Lond. 1748, 8vo, which procured him the honour of 
being chosen a fellow of the royal society. This work, 
wiiich has long been out of print, was praised by Chaptal 
and bishop Watson for the profound knowledge of the sub- 
ject displayed in it. 3. " An enquiry concerning the mi- 
neral elastic spirit contained in the water of Spa in Ger- 
many," printed in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. LV. 
4. A treatise, " On the means of preventing the commu- 
nication of pestilent contagion." A trip to the Spas of 
Germany suggested to him the idea of analyzing the pro- 
perties of the Pyrmont springs, and of some others, and 
led him into that train of nice and deep disquisition, which 
terminated in the de-elementizing one of our elements, 
and fixing its invisible fluid form into a palpable and visible 
substance. All this he effected by producing the various 
combinations of gases and vapours which constitute atmo- 
spheric air, and separating into many forms this long- sup* 
posed one and indivisible, whilst he solidified its fluid es- 
sence into a hard substance. That Dr. Brownrigg was the 
legitimate father of these discoveries was not only known at 

1 Bfog. Brit.— Life and Funeral Sermon by Dr. Gauden, 1660, 8vo. T ^Fuller , i 
Worthies. — Barwick's Life, see Index. — Clarendon's Hist. vol. II. p. 305.— * 
Sylvester^fcife of Baxter, p. 172, 174, 175, &c— Plume's Life of Hacket, p. 
12, 13, 16?S5, 44.— Neal's Puritan?, vol. II. p. $$, $44, 4to edit.~-Llpyd's Me- 
moirs, fol. p. 404. 

M 2 



16* BROWNRJG G. 

the time to bis intimate apd domestic circle, but also to the 
then president of the royal society, sir John Pringle ; who, 
when called upon to bestow upon Dr. Priestley the gold 
medal for his paper of " Discoveries of the Nature and 
Properties of Air," thus observes, " And it is no disparage- 
ment to thejearned Dr. Priestley, that the vein of these 
discoveries was hit upon, and its course successfully fol- 
lowed up, some years ago, by my very learned, very pene- 
trating, very industrious, but tqo modest friend, Dr. 
•Brownrigg." To habits, indeed, of too much diffidence, 
and to too nice a scrupulosity of taste, the' world has to at- 
tribute the fewness of his publications. One of his literary 
projects, was a general history of the county of Cumber- 
land, but it does not appear that he had made much pro- 
gress. He assisted Mr. West, however, in his entertain- 
ing " Tour to the Lakes," forming the plan of that popu- 
lar work. l 

BRUC/EUS (Henry), son of Gerard, one of the magis- 
trates of Alost, in Flanders, was born in that city in 1531. 
Having passed through the usual school edu,cati6n at 
Ghent, under Simon, a celebrated master, and at fraris 
and Bruges, at which last place he taught school himself 
with much credit, he was sent to Rome, where' he taught 
the mathematics for some years ; then taming his mind to 
the study of medichie, he went to Boulogne, and having 
completed his studies, and taken his degree of doctor, he 
travelled, for his further improvement, over a great part 
of France. At Paris, he was introduced to theacquaiut- 
ance of Adrian Turnebus and Peter Ramus. Returning to 
Alost, he was made physician and principal magistrate of 
the city. As he had become a convert to Lutheranism,'he 
readily accepted the invitation of John Albert, duke of 
Meckleiibii£gh, to settle at Rostock, where he might with 
safety profes$ his religion. He was here appointed pro- 
fessor in mathematics, and soon became popular also as a 
physician. After residing here 25 years, he was seized 
with an apoplexy, of which he died, December 3 i, 1593. His. 
writings were, I. " Ds Primo Moiu," 1 580, 8va 2. " In- 
stitution^ Spnerae,". 8vo. 3. " Proposiriones de mo'rbo 
Gallico," Rostock/ 1569, 4to. 4. " Theses de hydrope 
triplici," ibid. 1587. 5., " Descorbuto proposition es," ib. 
1589, 1591, Svo, reprinted with Eugalenas's ** I%er Ob-* 

* Cent. Mag. 1S0O. ..,.". 



BtUC£US. ite 

servationum de Scorbuto," Leipsic, 1614. 6. €€ Epistolae 
de variis rebus et argumentis medicis," printed with 
"Smetii Miscellanea," Francf. 1611* and including bis 
theses on the dropsy. l 

BRUCE (James), a celebrated modern traveller, de- 
scended of an ancient and honourable family, was the son 
of David Bruce, esq. of Kinnaird, by Marion Graham, 
daughter of James Graham, esq. of Airtb, dean of the fa- 
culty of advocates, and judge of the high court of admiralty 
in Scotland. He was "born at the family residence of Kin* 
naird, in tfie county of Stirling, Dec. 14, 1730. Of his 
first years few particulars are recorded of much conse- 
quence, except that bis temper, contrary to the character 
which it afterwards assumed, was gentle and quiet ; but as 
he advanced in life, became bold, hasty, and impetuous, 
accompanied, however, with a manly openness, that shewed 
the usual concomitant, a warm and generous heart. It 
having been determined to give him an English education, 
he was sent to London to the house of William Hamilton, 
esq. a barrister, and his uncle, with whom he remained 
for some time, and in 1742 he was placed at Harrow school, 
"where he made great proficiency in classical learning. 
After leaving Harrow in May 1746, he lived about a year 
in the academy of a Mr. Gordon till April 1747, where he 
prosecuted his classical education, and studied French, 
arithmetic, and geometry. In - May of that year he re- 
turned to Scotland in order to commence a course of study 
at the university of Edinburgh, preparatory to his following 
this profession of the law ; but it does not appear that he 
made much progress, or indeed had much inclination for 
«^this /study/ and the precarious state of his health at this 
time rendered much study of any kind dangerous. His 
own expectations of success in the law became gradually 
abated, and various other circumstances determined him 
to relinquish it for ever. 

In this uncertainty of mind, India offered to his ardent 
Imagination a prospect of a more flattering nature. As he 
was considerably above the age at which persons are en- 
rolled as writers .in the service of the East India company, 
his friends advised him to petition the court of directors 
for the liberty of settling as a free trade** under its patron - 

1 Moreri.— Fopptu Bibl. Bclg. — Mange t and Haller.—Frehtrl Tbeatruai.^* 
Jftclchior Adam in fitis medicorum. 



IM BRUC 

age ; and accordingly he left Scotland in July 11 Si with a 
view to prosecute this design ; but he was prevented from 
carrying it into execution by forming a connection with an 
amiable young lady, Miss Allan, daughter of a wine-mer- 
chant in London, whom he married in Feb. 1754. But 
though this year did not end with the prosperity with which 
it began, this accidental settlement in London changed his 
destination*- in life. It detained him in Europe till his 
mind waa formed, his knowledge matured, and an oppor- 
tunity presented itself of visiting the east with honour and 
advantage. In his oivji opinion, it prevented him from 
suffering the cruel imprisonment at Calcutta in 1756, 
which proved fatal to many of the company's servants. He 
now entered into partnership in the wine-business, which, 
as. well as his marriage, was approved of by his father; but 
bis prospects in this new situation were soon clouded; A 
few, months after their marriage, Mrs- Bruce exhibited evi- 
dent symptoms of consumption, and being recommended 
to try the mild cltiftate of the south of France, expired at 
Pari* in October. 

:By this melancholy event, Mr. Bruce lost the principal 
tie that connected him with business, and although he did 
not think it prudent to relinquish a flourishing trade with- 
out some equivalent object, relaxed his personal efforts 
very considerably, and added to his stock of languages, 
the Spanish and Portuguese. He also improved his skill 
in drawing, under a master of the name of Bonneau, re- 
commended to him by Mr. (afterwards sir) Robert Strange. 
Before this time he bad chiefly cultivated that part of 
drawing which relates to the science of fortification, ih : 
hopes that he might, on some emergency, End it of use in 
military service. v But views of a more extensive kind now 
induced him to study drawing in general, and to obtain a 
correct taste, in painting, so as to be able to visit with ad- 
vantage those countries which possess the finest specimens 
of skill and genius in that department of the arts.— This 
notice of Mr, Bruce's application to the study* of drawing* 
we have given in the words of bis biographer, because it' 
was fqng and confidently reported by those who wished to- 
lessen Mr. Brace's reputation, that he was totally and in* 
corrigibly ignorant of the art. 

His concern in the wine-trade gave him an opportunity 
of travelling over a considerable part of Spain, Portugal,** 
and the Netherlands, but hearing of his father's death in 



B R U C & 167 

1758, he returned to England, and i% 1761 withdrew en- 
tirely from the 'wine- trade. He now, from hit observation 
while in Spain, suggested to the prime minister, Mr. Pitt, 
afterwards lord Chatham, the practicability of a successful 
expedition against Ferrol, in Galicia, where the Spaniards 
had a considerable harbour, and generally stationed a part 
of their navy ; but various circumstances, of which perhaps 
Mr. Pitt's resignation was the principal, prevented this 
enterprise from being attempted. Disappointed in this, 
be resolved to return to his native country, and pass his 
time as a private gentleman, cultivating his paternal estate* 
One of the new ministers, however, lord Halifax, diverted 
him from this design, and suggested Africa to him as a 
proper field for enterprize and discovery ; and that he 
might go under the protection of a public character, it was 
proposed to send him as consul %o Algiers. Bruce acceded 
to these proposals, and left England in the end of June 
1762. He passed through France and Italy, and carried 
with him from the letter country an artist to assist him in 
his drawings. For his subsequent adventures, bis travels 
into Abyssinia, and his discovery of the sources of the Nile, 
&c. we must refer to his published travels. He returned 
to his native coiiptry in 1773, and in 1776, he married a 
daughter of Thomas Dundas of Fingask, esq. by whom he 
had three children, two of whom, a son and daughter, are 
still living. After he settled at Kinnaird, bis time was 
qhiefly spent in managing his estate, in preparing bis tra* 
vels for the press, and other literary occupations ; and he 
was preparing a second edition of his Travels, when death 
prevented the execution of his design. On Saturday, 
April 26, 1794, having entertained some company at Kin- 
naird, as he was going down stairs about eight o'clock in: 
the evening, to hand a lady into a carriage, his foot slipt, 
and be fell from a considerable height. He was taken up 
in a .state ef insensibility, and expired early next morning* 
. Mr. Bruce' s .figure was above the. common size; his 
Kmbs athletic, but well .proportioned ; his complexion 
sanguine ;. bis countenance manly and good-tempered ; 
and his manners easy and polite. The whole outward man 
was such as to announce a character well calculated to con* 
tend with the many difficulties and trying occasions, which 
so extraordinary a journey could not but have thrown in his 
way. His internal characters, the features of bis under- 
standing ai>d disposition, seem in a. great measure to have 



J6« BRUCE. 

corresponded with these outward lineaments. As a country 
gentleman, though not without a tincture of haughtiness, 
he exhibited the elegance of a man of fashion, and the 
hospitality of a Briton. His personal accomplishments 
fitted hitn, in a superior manner, for the undertakings in 
which he engaged. His constitution was robust, and he 
had inured himself to every kind 6f fatigue and exercise. 
In tnental accomplishments he equalled, if not surpassed, 
the generality of travellers. His memory was excellent, 
And his understanding vigorous and well cultivated. He 
understood French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, the 
two first of which he spoke and wr6te with facility. Be- 
sides Greek and Latin, which he read wel 1 , though not 
critically, he knew the Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syriac ; and, 
in the latter part of his life, compared several portions of 
the scriptures in those related dialects. He read and spoke 
with ease, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Amharic. ' Necessity 
made him acquainted with these last, and impressed them 
deeply on his mind. He had applied, during the greatest 
part of his life, to the study of astronomy, and ojther prac- 
tical branches of mathematical learning. 

The most defective part of his character, his biographer 
informs us, arose from his constitutional temper, which 
disposed him to be suspicious, and hasty in taking offence. 
His enmities therefore were sometimes capricious, though, 
in general, well-founded. His love of ancestry, and prac- 
tice of telling his own exploits, though magnified into 
tices by the weakest of his enemies, scarcely deserve no- 
tice as imperfections, though they certainly were protni- 
nent features. — They contributed* howevef, in a great 
measure, to excite those animosities and that incredulity 
which for many years prevailed respecting the veracity of 
his narrative. 

His "Travels," after many years of eager expectation 
on tbe'part of the public, were published in 1790, at Lon- 
don, in 5 vols. 4to, under the title " Travels to discover the 
Source of the Nile, in the years 1768 — 1773." The reception 
they met with was exceeding flattering, yet numerous" at- 
tacks were made on the author's character and veracity in 
the periodical journals, to which it is unnecessary now to 
refer*. It seems agreed that the general credit 4>f the 

s 

* The late Dr. JLort formed a con- against Bruce, which are bow in the 

siderable collection of Memoranda, possession of the editor of this wdrk, in 

correspondence, scraps from the Jour- consequence of & purchase at Mr. 

pals and Newspapers, Stc for and Gough's sale. 



BRUCE. 169 

work has survived. We caftnot perhaps quote a higher '. 
Authority than that of Dr. Vincent, who observes that 
'* Bruce may have offended from the warmth of his tem- 
per ; he may have been misled by aspiring to knowledge 
and science which he had not sufficiently examined ; but 
bis work throughout bears internal marks of veracity, in 
all instances where he was not deceived himself; and his 
observations were the best which a man, furnished with 
| such instruments, and struggling for his life, could ob- 

tain." l 

. BRUCIOLl (Anthony), a laborious Italian writer, was 
born at Florence towards the conclusion of the fifteenth 
century. Having meddled in 1522 in the plot formed by 
some Florentine citizens against cardinal Julius de Medicis, 
afterwards pope Clement VII. he was obliged to expatriate 
himself, and withdrew into France. The Medici being 
driven out of Florence in 1527, this revolution brought 
him back to his country, where the liberty with which he 
chose to speak against the monks and priests, raised a 
suspicion of his being attached to the opinions of Luther* 
He was put into prison, and would not have escaped an 
ignominious death but for the kind offices of his friends; 
who procured a mitigation of his punishment to an exile of 
two years. He then retired to Venice with his brothers, 
who were printers and booksellers, and employed their 
presses in printing the greater part of his works, of which 
the most known and the most in request is the whole Bible 
translated into Italian, with annotations and remarks, which 
was put by the papists in the number of heretical books of 
the first class; but the protestagts held it in such high 
esteem that it passed through several editions. The most 
>ample and the most scarce is that of Venice, 1546 and 
1548, 3 vols, folio. Brucioli pretends to have made hi* 
.translation from the Hebrew text: but the truth is, that, 
.being but moderately versed in that language, he made. 
, use of the Latin version of Pagniai. His other works are, 
1. Italian translations of the natural history of Pliny, and 
several .pieces of Aristotle and Cicero. 2. Editions of Pe- 
trarch and Bocace, with notes. 3. " Dialogues," Venice, 
1526, folio. The year of his death is not known; but it 
is certain that he was still alive in 1554. 8 

1 Life of Bruce by Alexander Murray, F« A. S. E. 4to, 1308, a work of great 
interest and impartiality. ' Diet. Hnt. 



17* BRUCKER. 

BRUCKER (John James), the learned author of the 
" History of Philosophy/ 9 was a Lutheran clergyman, of 
whose life we have very few particulars. He was born 
Jan. 22, 1696, at Augsburgb, and educated at Jena, 
whence he returned to his native place, and in 1724, be-* 
came rector of Kafbeueren. He was afterwards pastor of 
St. Ulricas church at Augsburgh, where be died in 1770; 
Among his works are, I. " Tentamen introductions in 
historiani doctrinae de Ideis," Jena, 1719, 4to. 2* u His* 
toria philosophica doctrinae de Ideis," Augsburg, 1723, 8vo& 
S. " De Vita et Scriptis CI. Efringeri," ibid. 1724, 8vo. 
4. " Otium Vindelicum, sive Meletematum Historico-phi- 
losophicorum Triga," ibid. 1721, &vo. V w Historia Vitas 
Adoiphorum Occonum," Lips. 1734, 4to. 6* " Dissertatio 
Epistol. de Vita Hier. Wolfii," ibid. 1739, 4to. 7. " De 
Hoeschelii Mentis in Rem Literariam," ibid. 1739, 4to. 
8. " Institutiones Histories Philosophies," ibid. 1727, 8vo* 
and 1756, 4to. But the most important work, to which 
he owes his chief reputation, is his <* Historia Critica Phi- 
losophise," published at Leipsic between the years 1742 
and 1744, in four large volumes 4to; and repriuted at the 
same place in 1767, with large improvements and addi- 
tions, in 6 vols. 4to. This was the fruit, of nearly fifty 
years labour, and has received the general suffrage of die 
learned, as being the most comprehensive, methodical, and 
impartial history of philosophy hitherto written* He traces 
the progress of philosophy through three periods, the 
ancient, the middle, and the modern; in the first be 
surveys the state of philosophy in the ancient worlds 
prior to the establishment of the Grecian states, and 
in the several sects of Grecian philosophers. In the se« 
cond, he exhibits the various forms under which it ap- 
peared, during the course of twelve hundred years, among 
the Romans, the Orientalists, the Jews, the Saracens, and 
the Christians. In the third, he relates the attempts, whe* 
ther successful or unsuccessful, which have been made 
since the revival of letters, to restore, or improve upon, 
ancient philosophy, or to introduce new methods of philo- 
sophizing. It is both a history of doctrines and of men. 
As a history of doctrines, it lays open the origin of opi- 
nions, the changes which they have undergone, the distinct 
characters of different systems, and the leading points in 
which they agree or differ. As a history of men, it relates 
the principal incidents in the lives of the more eminent 



BRUCKER. 171 

philosophers, remarks those circumstances in their charac- 
ter or situation which may be supposed to have influenced 
their opinions, takes notice of their followers and oppo- 
nents, and describes the origin, progress, and decline of 
their, respective sects. To this part of his work every col- 
lector of biography must own his obligations. A very 
judicious and satisfactory abridgement of this work was 
published in 1791, 2 vols. 4to, by the late Dr. Enfield. 1 

BRUGKMAN (Francis Ernest), a German physician 
and botanist, was born at Mariensbal, near Helmstadt, Dec. 
1 7, 1 697, and having completed his studies, was created 
doctor in medicine there, in the year 1721.. As his taste 
inclined him to botany, he travelled over Bohemia, Austria, 
and a great pat t of Germany, examining and collecting 
plants indigenous to those countries, and other natural 
productions. In return for his communications to the 
Academia Nat Curios, and of Berlin, be was made cor- 
responding member of those societies. Having finished 
his travels, he settled at Brunswick, where he died March 
21 st, 1753, When young, and before he had taken the 
degree of doctor, he published : 1. " Specimen Botani- 
cum, exhibens' fungos subterraneos, vulgo tubefa terra 
dictos,!' Helmst. 1720,. 4to, with engravings. 2. "Opus- 
cula Medico . botanica," Brunswick, 1727, 4to. In this 
be treats of the medical qualities of various vegetable pro- 
ductions, .among others, of coffee, the use of which he 
condemns. &, " Epistolae Itinerarise," containing his obser- 
vations on vegetable and other natural productions, col- 
lected during his travels, in which we find a great body of 
uiefol information. 4. " Historia naturalis ts A<r@tff$$ ej us- 
que pr^paratorum chart® lini liritei et ellychniorum in- 
combustitiilium," Brunsw. 1727, 4to. In this he has 
discovered' that the asbestos is susceptible of printing, and 
be had four copied of the work printed on this species of 
incombustible- paper. 5. " Magnalia Dei in locis subter- 
rarieis," a description of all the mines and mineralogical " 
productions in every part of the world, Brunswick, and 
Wolfeubdttel, 1727, and 1730, 2 Vols, fol. 1 

BRUCKNER' (John), a Lutheran divine, settled in 
England, was born in the small island of Cadsand, near 
the- Belgic frontier, Dec. 31, 1726, and was educated ' 
with a view to* the theological profession, chiefly at th$ v 



.t 






172 BRUCKNER. 

university of Franeker, whence he passed to Leyde*. 
There he obtained a pastorship, and profited by the society 
of Herasterbuis, of Valkenaer, and especially of the elder 
Schultens. His literary acquirements were eminent ; he 
read the Hebrew and the Greek ; he composed correctly ; 
and has preached with applause in four languages, Latin, 
Dutch, French, and English. In 1752, Mr. Columbine, 
of a French refugee family, which had contributed to 
found, and habitually attended, the Walloon church at 
Norwich, was intrusted by that congregation, when he was 
on a journey into Holland, to seek out a fit successor to 
their late pastor, Mr. Valloten, and applied, after due in- 
quiry, to Mr. Bruckner, who accepted the invitation, and 
early in 1753 settled as French preacher at Norwich, where 
he officiated during fifty-one years, with undiminished ap~ 
probation* About the year 1766, Mr. Bruckner succeeded 
also to Dr. Van Sarn, as minister of the Dutch church, of 
which the duties 'gradually became rather nominal than 
real, in proportion as the Dutch families died off, and as 
the cultivation of their language was neglected by the 
trading world for the French. The French tongue Mr. 
Bruckner was assiduous to diffuse, and gave public and 
private lessons of it for many years. His income was now 
convenient and progressive. He kept a horse and a pointer, 
£<n he took great pleasure in shooting. He drew occa- 
sionally, and has left a good portrait of his. favourite dog. 
He cultivated music, and practised much on the organ. 
In 1767' was printed at Leyden his " Tb6orie du Systgme 

- Animal," in the seventh and tenth chapters of which there 
is much anticipation. of the sentiments. lately evolved in 
the writings of Mr. Mail thus. This, work was well trans- 
lated into English, under the title " A Philosophical 
Survey of the Animal Creation,", published for Johnson 

- and Payne in 1768. Mr. Bruckner was married in 1782, 
v to Miss Cooper, of Guist, formerly his pupil. In 1790, he 

published under the name Cassander, from his birth-place, 
those " Criticisms on the Diversions of Purley," which at- 
tracted some hostile flashes from Mr, Home Tooke, in his 
subsequent quarto edition. This pamphlet displays a pro- 
found and extensive knowledge of the various Gothic dia- 
lects, and Mate* that tbfnsame theory of prepositions and 
conjunctions, so convincingly applied in the " Epeapte- 
roenta" to the northern languages, had also been taught 
concerning the Hebrew and other dead languages bf 



BRUCKNER. I7S 

Schultens. Mr. Wakefield'* pamphlet against Social Wor- 
ship drew from Mr. Bruckner, in 1792, a learned reply. 
In the preface to these " Thoughts on Public Worship," 
hopes are given of a continuation still desiderated by the 
friends of religion. Mr. Bruckner began a didactic poem 
in French ver>e, which had for its object to popularize in 
another form, the principles laid down in bis fbeory of 
the Auimal System. A gradual failure rather of •spirits 

.than of health, seetns often to have suspended or delayed 
the enterprise ; to haye brought on a restless and fas- 
tidious vigilance ; and to have prepared that termina- 
tion of bis iife, which took place on the morning of Satur- 
day, May 12, 1804. He was buried, according to his 
own desire, at Guist, near the kindred of his respected 
wiHow. His society was courted to the last, as his con- 
versation was always distinguished for good s^nse, for 
argument, and for humour. He was beloved Jfor his at- 
tentions and affability ; esteemed for his probity and pru- 
dence; and admired for his understanding and learning. 1 

BRUEGHEL or BREUGHEL (Peter), called Old 
Brueghel, to distinguish him from bis son, was the first 
of a family of eminent artists. He was born at Brueghel, 
a village near Breda, in 1510, and acquired the first prin- 
ciples of his art from Peter Cock, or Koeck-van-AeLst, 
whose daughter he married. He afterwards travelled in 
France and Italy ; studied nature, amidst the mountain* of 
Tyrol, arid the scenery of the Alps ; and availed: himself 
of the works of the greatest masters in Italy. On his re- 
turn from Italy, he resided for some time at Antwerp, and 
from thence he removed to Brussels. Whilst he was em- 
ployed by the magistrates of this city, in taking views of 
the canal which, falls into the. Scheldt, he sickened, and 
died in 1570; after having caused to he burned in his 
presence, all his licentious and satirical designs. He 
chiefly excelled in landscapes, and droll subjects, re* 
sembling those of Jerom Boscbe ; and he was particularly 
fond of representing the marches of armies, robberies, 
skirmishes, sports, dances, weddings, and drunken <juar- 

■ ! rels ; and in order to acquire greater skill and accuracy in 
this kind of representations, he often assumed the hab&of 
a peasant, and joined the meaner boors at their feasts aud 
amusements. His figures wer* correct, and their dm* 

} G*nt. M»s- 1*94, 



174 BRUEGHEL. 

peries well chosen ; the heads and hands were touched 
with spirit ; and his expression, though not elegant, wad 
true. Sir Joshua Reynolds says, that " he was totally ig- 
norant of all the mechanical art of making a picture; 99 but 
there is in his " Slaughter of the Innocents' 9 (which sir 
Joshua saw in his travels), a great quantity of thinking, a 
representation of variety of distress, enough for twenty 
modern pictures. His principal performance is in the 
emperor' 6 collection at Vienna, which is the " Reprer 
sentation of the building of the tower of Babel, by Nim- 
rod. 99 Several of his paintings are in the cabinets of the 
emperor and elector palatine, and dispersed through va- 
rious parts of Europe. For his amusement he engraved 
some few landscapes and grotesque subjects. * 

BRUEGHEL (Peter), the younger, and sometimes, 
called " Hellish Brueghel 99 from the nature of his subjects, 
was the son of the preceding artist, born at Brussels, 
and became the disciple of Gelles Comngsloo. His com- 
positions rather excite disgust than satisfaction ; and his . 
human figures, though freely pencilled, and not ill co- 
loured, are not much more eiegatit than those of the in- 
fernal kind. In his historical subjects he generally intro- 
duced witches and devils ; such as Orpheus charming Pluto 
and Proserpine to procure the deliverance of Eurydice,*., 
surrounded with horrible forms and appearances ; Saul 
and the Witch of Endor; or St Anthony's temptations. 
He is also enumerated by Stttttt among the engravers. He 
died 1642s* 

BRUEGHEL (John), known, from his favourite dress; 
by the name of Velvet Brueghel, or Feuweeler, was the 
son of Peter Brueghel 'th6 old, and consequently brother 
to the preceding. He was born at Brussels, in 1560, and 
was instructed* probably by bis father, and by other artists; 
but, whoever were his instructors, lie acquired an emi- 
nence in every art of painting, in colouring, in design, 
and in pencilling, far superior to that of his father, and of 
all his contemporaries in his style* He began with painting 
flowers and fruit, which he executed with admirable skill ; 
and then proceeded to landscapes, sea-ports, and markets, 
in which he introduced a number of small figures, sur- 
prisingly exact and correctly drawn. At Cologne, where 

1 Pilkington.— Strutt— Argentine, vol. HL— Descamps. — Sir J. Reynolds's 
Works, ▼ol. II. p. 408. . » Piutfngton.— Strutt,— Argenvilk 



BRUEGHEL 177 

b<e resided for some time, he gained aft extraordinary re* 
putation; and his pictures were well known and admired 
in Italy, in which country he spent some time. He died, 
according to the most probable accounts, in 1625. That 
the industry of this artist must have been singular, suffi-t 
ciently appears from the number and variety of his pictures, 
&tid the exquisite neatness and delicacy of their execution. 
It has been lamented, however, by connoisseurs, that his 
distances are overcharged with a bluish tinge. Brueghel 
pften decorated the pictures of his friends with small 
figures, thus greatly enhancing their value ; he was em- 
ployed in painting flowers, fruits, animals, and landscape 
scenery, in the pieces of history-paintings ; and in thit 
way Rubens made occasional use of his pencil. He some- 
times joined this master in larger works, which have been 
much admired; and particularly in a " Vertumnus and 
Pomona/' a picture three feet high and four broad, highly 
commended by Houbraken, and sold at Amsterdam for 
above 280/. sterling ; and " a Terrestrial Paradise," painted 
for Charles I. king of England. In the gallery of the 
archiepiscopal palace at Milan, there is an admirable 
landscape of Brueghel, representing a desert, in which 
Giovanna Battista Crespi painted the figure of St Jerom ; 
and among a great number preserved in the Ambrosian li- 
brary in that city, there is an oval picture of the Virgin, 
painted by Rubens, which is encompassed by a garland of 
flowers admirably executed by Brueghel, Most consi- 
derable cabinets possess specimens of the art of this master. 
Some smatl engravings of landscapes, &c. are also ascribed 
toBfuegheL 1 

BRUEYS (David Augusts), a French writer of a sin- 
gular character fpr versatility, was born at Aix, ' iu 1 640; 
and trained in the reformed religion, in defence of which 
he published some controversial pieces, particularly against 
Bossuet's " Exposition de la Foi," or Exposition of the 
faith ; but the prelate, instead of answering, converted 
him. Brueys, become catholic, combated with the Prote- 
stant ministers, with Jurieu, Lenfant, and La Roche ; but 
his airy spirit not rightly accommodating itself to serious 
works, he quitted theology for the theatre. He composed, 
jointly with Palaprat, his intimate friend, several comedies 
full of wit and gaiety. We have also of this writer a pro- 

1 PilkinstOD.— Strutt.— Argen?ille. 



.176 BRUEYS. 

aa}c paraphrase or commentary on Horace' s art of poetry* 
In bis latter years he became again a controversial writer, 
and, as his countrymen say, imitated Bellarmine and 
Moliere by turns. He died at Montpellier in 1723, aged 
•eighty -three ; and all his dramatic pieces were collected, 
1735, in 3 vols. 12mo. His comedies have some merit, 
but his tragedies and oth$r works are deservedly sunk into 
oblivion. l 

BRU H1ER (John James d* Ablaincourt), a French phy- 
sician, was born at Beauvais about the end of the seven* 
teenth century, and after studying medicine, acquired 
considerable reputation by his practice and his writings. 
He also arrived at the honour of being royal censor of the 
college, and a member of the academy of Angers. He 
died in 1756, after having written or edited some works of 
merit in his profession : 1. " Observations sur le manuel 
des Accoucbments," Paris, 1733, 4to, a translation from 
Daventer. 2. " La Medicine Raisonn6e," from Hoffman, 
ibid. 1739, 9 vols. 12mo. 3. " Caprices d'imagination, ou 
Lettres sur differens sujets," ibid. 1 746, in which he ap- 
pears as a physician, metaphysician, moralist, and critic. - 
4. " Memoires pour servir a la vie de M. Silva," ibid. 
1744, 8vo. 5. " Trait6 des Fievres," from Hoffman, ibid. 
1746, 3 vols. 12mo, 6. " La Politique du Medicin," from 
the same, ibid. 1751, 12 mo. 7. " Trait6 des Alimens," 
by Lemery, ibid. 1755* 2 vols. 12mo. 8. " Dissertations 
surl'incertitudedes signesde lamort, et Pabus des enterre*- 
mens et embaumemens precipit6s," ibid. 1742, often re- 
printed, and translated into many European languages. 
This is the most useful of all his works, and has been the 
means of saving many lives. He wrote also some papers 
in the Journal des Savans. * 

BRUIN, or BRUYN (John de), professor of natural 
philosophy and mathematics at Utrecht, was born at Gor— 
cum in 1620. He went through a course of philosophy at 
Leyden ; and then pursued his studies at Bois-le-duc, 4 
where he was very much esteemed by Samuel des Marets,, * 
who taught philosophy and divinity in that place. He^ 
went from thence to Utrecht, where he learnt the mathe- 
matics, and then removed to Leyden, where he obtained 
leave to teach them. He was afterwards made professor at 
Utfecht; and because the professors had agreed among; 

* Diet Hirt.— Wm& * Bfct. Hist. 



BRUIN. 177 

« 

themselves that every one might teach at home such a part 
of philosophy as he should think fit, de Bruin, not con- 
tented with teaching what his public professorship re- 
quired, made also dissections, and explained Grotius? shook * 
" De jure belli et pacis." He had uncommon skill in dis- 
secting animals, and was a great lover of experiment* ' 
He made also observations in astronomy. He published- 
dissertations " De vi altrice," u De cbrpontoi gravitate et 
levitate," u De cognitione Dei naturali,"? " Daducis causa 
et origine," &c. He had a dispute with Isaac Yossius, to 
whom he .wrote a letter, printed at Amsterdam; ivr 1 66$ ; 
wherein be cites Vossius's book De natura et proprietate 
lucis, and strenuously maintains the hypothesis of Des- 
cartes. He wrote also an apology for the Cartesian philoso- 
phy against a divine, named Vogelsang. Id 1655, he 
married the daughter of a merchant of Utrecht, sister to 
the wife of Daniel Elzevir, the famous bookseller of Am* 
sterdam, by whom he had two children who lived but a 
few days. He died in 1675, and his funeral oration was 
pronounced by. Graevius. l 

BRUMOY (Peter), a celebrated French writer, was 
born at Rouen, Aug. 26, 1$88, and commenced his novi- 
ciate among the Jesuits of Paris, Sept. 8, 17Q4. In 1706, 
he began his philosophical course in the royal college, and 
in 1708 was sent to Caen to complete his studies that he 
might take orders. Some of his pieces are dated from 
that city in 1710 and 1712, and one from Bourgesin 17 Id. 
He appears indeed to have passed several years in the 
country, where he taught rhetoric. 'In 1713, he returned 
to, Paris to study theology, and in 1722 he was again at 
Paris, where he took the vows in the society of Jesuits, 
and was intrusted with the education of the prince of Tal- 
mont. About the same time fi$ assisted in the " Memoirs 
of the Arts and Sciences," and continued his labours in 
that journal until 1729, when he was obliged to leave Park 
for some time for having assisted in publishing father Mar- 
* gat's History of Tamerlane, which it appears had given 
offence. His absence, however, was not long, and on his 
return, or soon after, he was employed in continuing the 
" History of the Gallican church, 9 ' , of which six volumes 
had been published by fathers Longueval and Fontenay. 
la 1725, he was appointed professor of mathematics, and 



1 £*o. ©ici^Jtforeri in Iruyp. 

Vol. VII. N 



178 BRUMOY. 

filled that chair for six years with much reputation. It was 
probably in this situation that he read his lecture, on the 
" use of mathematical knowledge in polite literature," 
now printed in the second volume of his works, nor did his 
various public employments prevent his publishing many 
other works, which were well received by the public. In 
1722 he published, but without his name, his " Morale 
Chretienne," Paris, a small volume, of which four editions 
were soon bought up. In 1723, he also published the first 
of bis three letters, entitled " Examen du poema (de M. 
Racine) sur la grace," 8vo, and in 1724, ".La vie de 
l'imperatrice Eleonore," taken from that by father Ceva ; 
the same year, " Abreg6 des vertus de soeur Jeanne Silenie 
de la Motte des Goutes," Moulins, 12mo; and a new edi- 
tion of father Mourgues " Traite de la Poesie Francoise,'* 
with many additions, 1 2mo. But the work which coiitri* 
buted most to his reputation was his " Greek Theatre,** 
entitled u Theatre des Grecs, contenant des traductions 
et analyses des tragedies Grecques, des discours et des re- 
marques concernant la theatre Grec, &c. M 1730, 3 vols, 
4to, and often reprinted in l2aio, in France and Holland. 
This useful work, not now in such high reputation as for* 
merly, is yet well known in this country by the translation 
published by Mrs. Charlotte Lennox, in 1760, 3 vols. 4to; 
to which the earl of Corke and Orrery contributed a gene- 
ral preface, and translated the three preliminary dis- 
courses : Dr. Sharpe, Dr. Grainger, and Mr. Bourryau 
translated some other parts, and Dr. Johnson contributed & 
dissertation on the Greek comedy, and the general con- 
clusion of tlje work, which, in this translation, is certainly 
highly polished and improved. " Brumoy," says Dr. War^ 
ton^ "has displayed the excellencies of the Greek tra-* 
gedy in a judicious and comprehensive manner. His 
translations are faithful and elegant; and the analysis of 
those plays, which on account of some circumstances in 
ancient manners would shock the readers of this age,' and 
would not therefore bear an entire version, is perspicuous 
and full. Of all the French critics, he and the judicious 
Fenelou have had the justice to confess, or perhaps the 
penetration to perceive, in what instances Corueille and 
Racine have falsified and modernized the characters, and 
overloaded with unnecessary intrigues the simple plots of 
the ancients." # 

Brumoy was also employed in completing the history of 



BRUM OY. 179 

Xke ". Revolutions of Spain/ 1 left unfinished by father 
Orleans. This was published in 1734 in 3. vols. 4 to, of 
which about a half belongs to our author. He was next 
requested by the booksellers to collect his. own miscel- . 
Janeous pieces, in prose and verse, and published. 4 vols* 
12mo, in 1741. Spine of his poetry is in Latin, with trans-* 
lations, and we find here some dramatic pieces. He was 
also the editor qf various editions of works at the request 
of the booksellers. He was employed on the continuation 
of the " History of the Gallican church," when he was 
seized with a paralytic stroke, which proved fatal April 17,, 
1742. l 

BRUN (Charles le), an illustrious French painter, was 
of Scottish extraction, and born in 1619. His father was 
a statuary by profession. At three years of age it is re* 
ported, that he drew figures with charcoal ; and at twelve 
he drew the picture of his uncle so well, that it still passes 
for a fine piece. His father being employed in the gar- 
dens at Seguier, and having brought his son along with 
him, the chancellor of that name took a liking to him, and 
placed him with Simon Vo^et, an eminent painter, who 
was greatly surprised at young Le B run's amazing profit 
ciency. He was afterwards sent to Fontajnbleau, to take 
copies of some of Raphael's pieces. The chancellor sent 
him next to Italy* and supported him, there for six years. 
Le Brun, on his return, met with the celebrated Poussin, 
by whose conversation he greatly improved himself in his 
art, and contracted a friendship with him. which lasted as 
long as their lives. Cardinal Mazarin, a good judge of 
painting,, took great notice of Le Brun, .and often sat by 
him while he was at w T ork. | )r A painting of St. Stephen, 
which he finished in 1651, raised his , reputation to the 
highest pitch. Soon after, this, th$ king, upon the repre- 
sentation of M. Colbert, made. him his first painter, and 
conferred on h*FP the. order of St. Michael. His majesty 
employed two hours every day in looking over him, whilst 
he was painting the family of Darius at Fpntainbleau. 
About 1662, he began his ^ve large pieces of the history 
of Alexander the Great, in which he is said tohaye set the. 
actions of that conqueror in a more glorious light than 
Quietus Curtius in his, history. He procured several ad- 
vantage* for the royal acadeqay of, painting and sculptor* 

1 Mortrij— Diet. Hist.— Memoirs de» TrtYOiixfor 174*. 

N 2 



180 BR UN. 

at Paris,- and formed the plan of another for the student* 
of his own nation at Rome. There was scarce any tiling 
done for the advancement of the fine arts in which he wafc 
not consulted. It was through the interest of M. Colbert 
that the king gave him the direction of all his works, and 
particularly of his royal manufactory at the Gobelins, where 
he had a handsome house, with a genteel salary assigned 
to him. He was also made director'and chancellor of the 
royal academy, and shewed the greatest zeal to encourage 
the fine arts in France. He possessed in a great degree 
that •enthusiasm which animates the efforts, and increases 
the raptures of the artist. Some one said before him of 
his fine picture of the Magdalen, " that the contrite peni- 
tent was really weeping." — " That, 1 * said he, " is perhaps 
all that you can see ; I hear her sigh." He was endowed 
with a vast inventive genius, which extended itself to arts 
of every kind. He was well acquainted with the hietory 
and manners of all nations. Besides his extraordinary ta- 
lents, his behaviour was so genteel, and his address so 
pleasing, that he attracted the regard and affection of the 
whole court of France : where, by the places and pensions 
conferred on him by the king, he made a very-considerable 
figure. He died at his house in the Gobelins in 1690, 
leaving a wife, but no children. He was author of a curi- 
ous treatise of " Physiognomy ;" and of another of the 
i* Characters of the Passions." 

The paintings which gained him greatest reputation 
were, besides what we have already mentioned, those 
winch he finished at Fontainbleau, the great stair-case at 
Versailles, but especially the grand gallery there, which 
was the last of his works, and is said to have taken him up 
fourteen years. A more particular account of these, and 
a, general character of his other performances, may be 
found in the writings of his countrymen, who have been 
▼eiy lavish in his praises, and very fall in their accounts 
of his works. l 

BRUN (John Baptists le), known also by the name 
s of Desmarettes, a learned Frenchman, who died at Or- 
leans in 1731, advanced in age, was author or editor of 
many pieces of ecclesiastical history, lives of the saints, 
Ice. but deserves notice chiefly for being the editor of an 
excellent edition of Lactantius, collated with valuable ma- 

* Arfmiilte^-PilkiBf ton.— Strutt — Peraulft Homme* llluitretf. 



BRUN, 181 

nuscripts, and enriched with learned notes, which was 
published in 1748, 2 vols. 4to, by Lenglet du Fresrooy. l 

BRUN (Lawrence le), a French Jesuit, was born at 
Nantes in 1607, ai>d died at Pans Sept 1, 1663. He 
wrote 'many pieces of Latii* poetry. The principal are, 
1. "The Ignatiad," in xii books; the subject is the pil- 
grimage of St. Ignatius to Jerusalem. This poem forms a 
part of his " Virgilius Christianus ; n in which he has imi- * 
tated, with more piety than taste, the eclogues, the georgics* 
and the £neid. His " Ovidius Christianus" is in the same 
strain : the Heroic Epistles are changed into pastoral letters, 
the Tristibus into holy lamentations, and the Metamorphoses 
into stories of converted penitents. Father Le firun also 
wrote "Eloquentia Poetica," Paris, 1655, 4to, a treatise 
in Latin on the precepts of the art of poetry, supported on 
examples drawn .from the best authors. At the end is a 
treatise on poetical common-places, which may be of ser- 
vice to young versifiers. * 

BRUN (Peter le), a French priest of the oratory, who 
made considerable approaches to liberality and good sense 
in his writings, was born at Brignolle, in the diocese of 
Aix in Provence, in 166], and became celebrated for his 
knowledge of ecclesiastical history and antiquities; on which 
subjects he lectured in the seminary of St Magloire* at 
Paris, for thirteen years. His first publication appears to 
have been against the illusion of the divining rod; " Lettres 

?our prouver P illusion des philosophes sur la baguette," 
aris, 1693, reprinted in 1702, with many additions, un- 
der the title of " Histoire critique des pratiques aupersti- 
tieuses, &c." Of this there was a new edition in 3 vols. 
!2mo, 1732, with a life of the author by M. Bellon, bis 
nephew, and in 1737 the abbe Granet printed a collection ? 

of pieces intended as a fourth volume. He also wrote 
against the theatre, as an amusement improper for Chris-, 
tians ; but his more elaborate work was that on " Liturgies," 
published in 4 vols. 8vo, containing a history of liturgies, 
prayers, ceremonies, &c. including those of the church of 
England. This, owing to some liberal opinions, involved 
him in a controversy, in which he defended himself with 

Jreat ability, but before the contest wae over he dTed* 
an. 6, 1729. » . . 

» Moreri.— Diet. Hist. 

* Mowi.— Mortioff Poljk'wtor.— Bullet Jugemen* jdtt Sawn.— Swrii £ot- 
Bwt. * Moreri.— Diet. Hurtb 



132 BRUNCK. 

BRUNCK (Richard Francis Frederick), a celebrated 
Greek scholar and critic, a member of the inscriptions and 
belles lettres, and of the institute, was born at Strasburgh, 
Dec 30, 1729, and died in that city June 12, 1803. Of 
bis history no detailed account has yet appeared in this 
country, as far as we have been able to learn. We are only 
told that he was first educated in the college of Louis le 
Grand at Paris, and that having afterwards engaged in the 
civil administration of affairs, he had long neglected the 
cultivation of letters, when, in the course of the campaigns 
in Hanover, he happened to lodge at Giessen, in the bouse 
of a professor of the university. With him he read several 
Latin and Greek authors, and was soon inspired with a 
great predilection for. the latter language; but the most 
remarkable particular is, that some time before his death 
he lost on a sudden all taste for the critical and classical 
pursuits which he had followed so eagerly and successfully 
for upwards of half a century, and this without any visible 
decay of his powers either intellectual or physical. Yet, 
such was the change, that he totally abandoned all study 
of his favourite Greek, and could not be prevailed upon to 
cast even a' glance on any of his favourite authors, nor did he 
appear to take the smallest interest in the discovery of a 
manuscript of Aristophanes, which happened to confirm 
the greater part of his dotes and conjectures on that author, 
a circumstance, which, at any other period of his life, would 
have excited' his warmest enthusiasm. The works for 
which the learned world is indebted to his pen are, 1. " Aria- 
lecta veterum Poetarum Grafccorum," Strasburgh, 1772- 
1776, 3 vols. Svo, reprinted 1785. There is also a quarto 
edition. 2. " Anacreontis Carmina," ibid. 1778, 12 mo, 
and 1786, beautiful and accurate editions. 3. " jEschyli 
Tragcediae, Prometheus, Persse, Septem ad Thebas : So- 
phoclis Antigone : Euripidis Medea," ibid. 1779, Svo. 4. 
"Sophoclis Electra, et Euripidis Andromache," ibid. 1779, 
8vo. 5. "Sophoclis Oedipus Tyrannusj et Euripidis Ores* 
tes," ibid. 1779, 8vo. 6. "Euripidis Tragedies quatuor, 
Hecuba, Phoenissse, Hyppolytus et Bacchae," ibid. 1780, 
8vo, with illustrations from a Parisian MS. an excellent 
edition. 7. " Apollonii Rbodii Argonautica r " ibid; 1780, 
8vo, the notes and emendations more valuable than those 
of any preceding author, but Brunck is accused of em** 
ploying conjecture rather too freely. 8. " Aristophanis 
Comcedise in Latinurn Sermonem converse," ibid. 1781, 



B R U N C K. 183 

* 

3 vols. 9. " Aristophanis Comcedise ex optimis exem- 
plaribus emendatse," ibid. 1783, 8vo, and 4to, containing 
the preceding Latin translation and notes and emendations, 
one of the best editions of Aristophanes. 10. " Gnomici 
Poetae Grseci," ibid. 1784, 8vo. 11. " VirgiHus," ibid. 
1785, 8vo. 12. " Sophoclis quae extant omnia, cum ve- 
terum Grammaticorum scholiis," ibid. 1786, 4to, 2 vols, 
and 3 vols. 8vo, 1786 — 9, an edition of acknowledged su- 
periority and value. 13. " Plautus," Bipohf. 1788, 2 vols. 
8vo. 14. " Terentius," 1787, from the, press of Daiyibach, 
but Mr. Dibdin mentions a Basil edition of 1797, said to 
have been superintended by Brunck, and printed in the 
same manner with his Virgil of 1789. Br u nek's enthusias- 
tic admiration of the authors he edited was such, that he 
conceived their writings to have been originally immacu- 
late; and therefore attributed to the copyists whatever 
errors he discovered. He is, *as we have noticed, accused 
of taking some bold freedoms in the restoration of what he 
conceived defective, but be was more remarkable for this 
in the notes which he wrote on the margins of his books, 
and the manuscript copies of some Greek poets which he 
left behind him. Of Apollonius Hhodius only he wrote 
out five copies. l 

BRUNELLESCHI, or BRUNELLESCO (Philip), an 
eminent Italian architect, was born at Florence in 1377. 
His father was a notary, and his son for some time was 
apprenticed to a goldsmith, but afterwards discovered a 
turn for geometry, in which he was instructed by Paul 
Toscanelli. A journey which he happened to take to 
Rome gave, him a taste for architecture, which her im- 
proved by the study of the edifices in that city, and had a 
very early opportunity of trying his skill. A dome was 
wanted for the church of St Maria del Fiore at Florence ; 
the ablest architects had been requested to send in their 
plans, and that of Brunelleschi was adopted, and carried 
into execution with' an effect which astonished Michael 
Angelo himself. He was next employed by Cosmo the 
Great in building the abbey of Fesoli, and was afterwards 
solicited for the plan of a palace for Cosmo. Brunelleschi 
accordingly gave in, a design of great magnificence, but 
Cosmo thought proper to prefer one more suited to the 
prudent economy which was then necessary for him, and 
Brunelleschi was so irritated that he destroyed his design. 

* Diet Hilt.— Saxii Onomast vol. VIII,— Dibdia's Classics. 



y 



M4 • , BRUNELLESOHL 

Brunejlegchi afterwards built the Pitt i palace, in part, and 
the church of St, Lorenzo in Florence almost entirely. He 
also gave some designs in military architecture. He is 
said to have been the first who attempted to restore the 
Grecian orders of architecture, and under his control this 
branch of the art attained a degree of perfection whjch it 
bad not known from the time of the ancients. Brunelleschi 
died in 1446, greatly lamented, and was interred with 
sumptuous funeral honours, and Cosmo erected a monu- 
ment to his memory. He is said to have employed his 
leisure hours in cultivating Italian poetry, and some of bin 
burlesque verses have been printed along with those of 
Burchiello ; there is a separate poem, " Geta e Birria," 
ascribed to him and to Domenico dal Prato, Venice, 1516,' 
8vq, but this seems doubtful. It is more certain that he> 
wrote architectural descriptions of all his works, some of 
which are, or lately were, fn Cosmo's palace at Florence^ 
Siow the residence of the noble family of Riccardi. * 
BRUNETTO. SeeLATlNI. 

BRUNI, or ARETINE (Leonard), a very eminent scho^ 
lar and historian, derived bis name of Aretine, or Aretino, 
from Arezzo, in which city he was born 'in the year 1370y 
of parents sufficiently wealthy to bestow on him a good 
education. In his early youth he was incited to a love of 
letters by an extraordinary accident A body of French 
troops, who were marching to Naples to assist Louis of 
Anjou in maintaining his claim to the sovereignty of that 
kingdom, at the solicitation of the partizans of a faction" 
which had been banished from Arezzo, made «n unex* 
pected attack upon that city; and, after committing a 
great slaughter, carried away many of the inhabitants into 
captivity ; and, among the rest, the family of Brum. Leo- 
nardo being confined in a chamber in which hong' a por- 
trait of Petrarch, by daily contemplating the lineaments of 
that ilkiftrious scholar, conceived so strong a desire to sig- 
Halite himself by literary acquirements, that immediately 
upon his enlargement tie repaired to Florence, where he 
prosecuted his studies with unremitting diligence* under 
the direction of John of Ravenna, and Manuel Chrysoloras. 
During his residence at Florence, he contracted a strict 
intimacy with the celebrated Poggio-Bracciolini, and the 
latter being afterwards informed by Leonardo that he 
wished to procure a presentation to some place of honour 

i Diet Hift.«~Argewriile,— Jtacoe's taenio* 



B R U N I. 18* 

•r emolument in the Roman chancery, took eveiy oppor- 
tunity of recommending him. In consequence of this, 
pope Innocent VII. invited him to 'Rome, where he ar- 
rived March 24, 1405, but was at first disappointed in his 
hopes, the place at which he aspired being intended for 
another candidate, Jacopo d'Angelo. Fortunately, bow-* 
ever, the pope having received certain letters from the 
duke of Berry, determined to assign to each of the com- 
pet i tors .the task of drawing up an answer to them, and the 
compositions being, compared, the prize was unanimously 
adjudged to Leonardo, who was instantly advanced to the 
dignity of apostolic secretary, and by this victory consi- 
derably increased his reputation, as his competitor was a 
man of very considerable talents. (See Angelo, James.) 
In 1410 Leonardo was elected chancellor of the city of 
Florence, but finding it attended with more labour than 
profit, resigned it in 1411, and entered into the service of 
pope John XXII. and soon after went to Arezzo, where 
he married a young lady of considerable distinction in that 
city. He was thought by his contemporaries rather too 
attentive to the minutiae of economy, and having married a 
lady who loved dress and ornaments, was somewhat disap- 
pointed. In a letter to his friend Poggio, after giving an 
account of his marriage expences, he adds, " In short, I 
have in one night consummated my marriage, and con- 
sumed my patrimony." In 1415 he accompanied pope John 
XXIII. to the council of Constance, and this pope having 
been there deposed, Leonardo returned to Florence, where 
he was chosen secretary to the republic, and was employed 
in several political affairs of importance. He died in the 
beginning of 1444, and was interred with the most solemn 
magnificence in the church of Santa Croce, with the fol- 
lowing ihscriptioo, which is still legible, but not worthy of 
the object : 

Fostqnun Leonaidus e vita, migravit, 
Hiitoria luget, Eloquentia muta est. 
Ferturqi*e Musat turn Grocas turn Latinas 
Lacrimas teaere nan poluisse. 

Leonardo . Broni was not only one of the most learned 
men of his age, . but one of the most amiable in character 
and maqffters, nor was his fame confined to Italy. The 
Warned of Fra-ace ^ud Spam travelled to Florence to have 
the Jtonouc of seeing him, and it is said that a Spaniard 
who was ordered by the king to pay him a visit, knelt 
down in his presence, and could with difficulty be per* 



196 B R U N L 

soaded to quit that bumble and admiring posture. These 
honours, however, excited no pride in Leonardo. The 
only failing of which he has been accused is that of avarice j 
but, as one of his biographers remarks, that name is some- 
times given to prudence and economy. His friendships 
were lasting and sincere, and he was never known to re- 
sent ill-usage with much asperity, unless in the case of 
Niccolo Niccoli, who appears to have given him sufficient 
provocation. The case, indeed, on the part of Niccoli 
appears abundantly ridiculous ; a termagant mistress whom 
he kept had been publicly disgraced, and Niccoli expected 
that his friends should condole with him on the occasion. 
Leonardo staid away, for which Niccoli reproached him, 
and when Leonardo offered him such advice as morality as 
well as friendship dictated, irritated Leonardo by his 
reiterated reproaches and insulting language. The con- 
sequence was a satire Leonardo wrote, a manuscript copy 
of which is in the catalogue, although not now in the li- 
brary, of New college, Oxford. The title of it was " Le- 
onardi Florentini oratio in nebulonem maledicum." It ap- 
pears by Mehus's catalogue of his works to be in the Lau- 
rentian library. Poggio, however, at last succeeded in 
reconciling the parties. 

If, according to some, Leonardo was occasionally im- 
patient in his temper, and too apt to take offence, his late 
biographer has given an anecdote which shews that he had 
the good sense to be soon convinced of his error, and the 
ingenuousness of spirit to confess it. Having engaged in 
a literary discussion with Gianozzo Manetti, he was so 
exasperated by observing that the bye-standers thought 
him worsted nn argument, that he vented his spleen in 
outrageous expressions against his antagonist. On the fol- 
lowing morning, however, by break of day, he went to 
the house of Gianozzo, who expressed his surprize that a 
person of Leonardo's dignity should condescend to honour 
him so far as to pay him an unsolicited visit. On this, 
Leonardo requested that Gianozzo would favour him with 
a private conference, and thus apologized for the warmth 
of his temper : " Yesterday I did you great injustice ; but 
I soon began to suffer punishment for my offence, for I 
have not closed my eyes during the whole night, and I 
could not rest till I -had made to you a confession of my 
fault" Mr. Shepherd justly observes, that the man who 
by the voluntary acknowledgment pf an errdr could thus 



8 R D N I. 187 

frankly throw himself upon the generosity of one whom he 
had offended, must have possessed in his own mind a fund 
of probity and honour. The failings of Leonardo were* 
indeed amply counterbalanced by his strict integrity, his 
guarded temperance, his faithful discharge of his public 
duties, and his zeal in the cause of literature. 

His works are, 1. " Historiarum Florentini populi, lib. 
duodecim," StrasbuTgh, 1610, fol. The Italian translation 
by Acciajolo was printed at Venice, 1473, 1560, and 1561, 
and at Florence, 1492. 2. " Leonardi Aretini de Tem- 
poribus suis Libri duo," fol. Venice, 1475 and 1485, &c. 
3. " De Bello Italico adversus Gothos gesto Libri quatuor," 
founded upon the Greek history of Procopius, Foligno, 
1470, and often reprinted. 4. " De Bello Punico Libri 
tres," Brix. 1498, &c. 5. " Commentarium Rerum Grse- 
car»:m," Leyden, 1539, &c. 6. " Isagogicon moralis dis- 
ciplinae ad Galeotum Ricasolanum." This work also bears 
the title of " Dialogus de moribus, &c." and under the 
title of " Aristotefes de moribus ad Eudemum Latine Leon. 
Aretino interprete," was printed at Louvain, 1475, &c. 7. 
" Ad Petrum Histrium dialogorum Libri," Basil, 1536, 
and Paris, 1642. 8. " De Studiis et Literis ad illustrem 
Dominum Baptistam de Malatestis," Strasburgh, 1521, &c. 

9. " Laudatio Joan. Strozzae," in Baluzzi's Miscellanies. 

10. u Imperatoris Heliogabali oratio protreptica," pub- 
lished by Aldus Manutius in his " Hist Augustae Scriptores 
Minores." 11. "Oratio in Hypocritas," printed in the 
Fasciculus of Ortuinus Gratius, Cologn, 1535, Leyden, 
1679, and London, 1691. 12. " La vita di Dante e i costu- 
mi e studj di ' Petrarca." The life of Petrarch was edited 
by Phil. Tomasinus in his " Petrarca Redivivus," Padua, 
1650, and was reprinted with the life of Dante, 1671. 13. 
" Magni Basilii Liber in Latinum translatus," Brix. 1485, 
&c. 14. Seven of Plutarch's Lives translated from the 
Greek, BasiJ, 1542. 15. "Apologia Socratis," Bonon, 
1502. 15. "Aristotelis Ethicorum Libri decern," Paris, 
1504 and 1510, &c. 16. " Aristotelis Politicorum, libri 
octo.V Venice, 1504, &c. 17. " Oeconomicorum Aristo- 
telis Libri duo," Basil, 1538. 18. " Oratio ^schinis in 
Ctesiphontem," Basil, 1528, 1540. 19. "Oratio Demo- 
sthenis contra ^schinem," ibid. 1528. 20. " De crudeli 
amoris exitu Guisguardi, &c." a translation of one of Boc- 
caccio's tales, Turon. 1467, printed also in the works of 
Pius II. 21. " Epistolarum Libri VIII." 1472, fol. often 



188 B R U N I. 

reprinted. 22* "Canzone morale di Messer Lionardo," 
printed in the third volume of Crescembini's Italian poetry. 
The numerous editions through which many of his works 
passed afford a sufficient indication of the esteem in which 
they were held by the learned of the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries. * 

BRUNNE (Robert de), or Robert Mannyng, the first 
English poet who occurs in the fourteenth century, was 
born probably before 1270, as he was received into the 
order of black canons at Brunne, about 1288. Malton 
appears to have been his birth-place, but what Malton is 
doubtful. He was, as far as can be discovered, merely a 
translator. His first work, says Wartqn, was a metrical 

Earaphrase of a French book, written by Robert Grosthead, 
ishop of Lincoln, called " Manuel Pecche" (Manuel des 
P6ch&), being a treatise on the decalogue, and on the 
seven deadly sins, which are illustrated with many legen- 
dary stories. It was never printed, but is preserved in the 
Bodleian library, MSS. No. 4 15, and in the Harleian MSS. 
No. 1701. His second and more important work is a me- 
trical chronicle of England, in two parts, the former of 
which (from iEneas to the' death of Cadwallader) is trans-, 
lated from Wace's " Brut d'Angleterre," and the latter 
(from Cadwallader to the end of the reign of Edward I.) 
from a French chronicle written by Peter de Langtoft, an 
Augustine canon of Bridlington in Yorkshire, who is sup* 
posed to have died in the reign of Edward II. and was 
therefore contemporary with his translator. Hearne has 
edited Robert de Brunne, but has suppressed the whole of 
bis translation from Wace, excepting the prologue, and a 
few extracts which he found necessary to illustrate his 
glossary. Mr. Ellis, to whom we are indebted for this ar- 
ticle, has given some specimens of de Brunne' s work. * 

fiRUNNER (John Conrad), a Swiss physician and ana- 
tomist of eminence, was born at Diessenhofen, the 16th of 
January, 1653. After passing through the usual school 
education, h4 was sent, at the age of sixteen, to Stras- 
burgh, where, applying assiduously to the study of physic 
and anatomy, he was created doctor in medicide in 1679. 

i Shepherd's Life of Pogfio Bracciolbi, p. 29/45, 132, 3S8.«- Gingueot Hift. 
Jit. d'ltalie, vol. III. p. 294.— Gen. Diet— Fabric. BibL Lat. Med.— Saxit 
• Osoroatt. 

* Elli*'* Specimen!, vol. 1. p. 11*.— Waftoa's Hift, of Poetry, vol. I. p. 4a, 
44, 69, 62—4—6, 72—7—8, 9>» 97, 1*5, 115, US, 120—1, 156-^8, 1*1, 166, 
- 173, 193, 214, 225, 253, 



brunner: is* 

For his thesis, he gave the anatomy of a child with two 
heads, which he met with. He now went to Paris, and 
attended the schools and hospitals there with such assi- 
duity, as to attract the notice, and gain him the intimacy 
of Dionis and du Verny, who were present while he made 
the experiments on the pancreas, which enabled him, some 
years after, to publish a more accurate description of that 
viscus, than had been before given, under the title of " Ex- 
perimenta nova circa Pancreas. Accedit Diatribe de Lym- 
pha et genuino Pancreatis usu," Leidte, 1682, 8vo. He 
proved that the fluid secreted by the pancreas is not ne- 
cessary to digestion, and that an animal may live after that 
viscus is taken out of the body, having tried the experiment 
upon a dog, which perfectly recovered from the operation. 
On quitting Paris, he came to London, and was introduced 
to Dr. Willis, Lower, and Henry Oldenburg, secretary to 
the royal society. From England he passed to Holland, 
and studied for some months at Leyden. At Amsterdam 
he visited Swammerdam and Ruvscb, with whom he after- 
wards corresponded. Returning ;home he was made pro- 
fessor of medicine at Heidelberg, and first physician to the 
elector palatine, who conferred on him the title of baron 
de Brunn in Hamerstein. About the same time, he married 
one of the daughters of the celebrated Wepfer, and was 
elected honorary member of the academia naturae curios, 
in return for some ingenious dissertations which he had 
communicated to them. In 1688 he publised " Disserta- 
tio Anatomica de Glandula pituitaria," Heidelb. 4to. From 
this time he 'became in such great request for his know- 
ledge and success in practice, that he was, in succession, 
consulted by most of the princes in Germany. Among 
pthers, in 1720, he was sent for to Hanover, to attend the 
prince of Wales, afterwards king George II. In 1715 he 
published at Heidelberg, " Glandula Duodeni seu Pan- 
creas secundum detectum," 4to, which was only an im- 
• proved edition of his " De Glandulis in D&odeno lntestino 
detectis," which had been before twice printed. There 
are some other lesser works, the titles and accounts of, 
which are given by Haller, in bis Bib. Anat. In the latter 
edition of Wepfer's works are given dissections by our au- 
thor, of the heads ?f some persons who died of apoplexy^ 
of whom he had had the care. Though early afflicted with 
gravel, and in the latter part of his life with gout, he con- 
tinued to attend ta the calls of his patients, though living 



190 BRUNNER. 

a great distance from bis residence. When m his 74th 
year, he went in great baste to Munich, to attend the 
elector. Maximilian Emanuel; on his return, he was seized 
with a fever, which, in a few days, put an end to his life, 
October 2, 1727. l 

BRUNO (St.) founder of the Carthusian monks, was 
descended from an ancient and honourable family, and 
born, at Cologn about the year 1030. He was educated 
first among the clergy of St. Cunibert's church at Cologn, 
and afterwards at Rheims, where he attracted so much 
notice by his learning and piety, that on a vacancy oc- 
curring, he was promoted to the office br rank of Scbolas- 
ticus, to which dignity then belonged the direction of the 
studies, and all the great schools of the diocese. In this 
office, which he filled with great reputation, he continued 
until 1077, when the scandalous conduct of Manasses, 
archbishop of Rheims, who, by open simony had got pos- * 
session of that church, induced him to join with some 
others in accusing Manasses in a council held by the pope's 
legate at Autun. Manasses accordingly was deposed, and 
the church of Rheims was about to choose Bruno for his 
successor in the archbishopric, when he resigned his office, 
and persuaded some of his friends to accompany him into 
solitude. After searching for some time to discover a 
proper place, they arrived at Grenoble in 1084, and re-- 
quested the bishop to allot them some place where they 
might serve God, remote from worldly affairs. The bishop 
having assigned them the desert of Chartreuse, and pro- 
mised them his assistance, Bruno and his companions, six 
in number, built an oratory there, and small cells at a little 
distance one from the other like the ancient Lauras of Pa- 
lestine, in which they passed the six days of the week, but 
assembled together oi> Sundays. Their austerities were 
rigid, generally following those of St. Benedict ; and, 
among other rules, perpetual silence was enjoined, and all 
their original observances, it is said, were longer preserved 
unchanged than those of any other order. Before the late 
revolution in France, they had 172 convents divided into 
sixteen provinces, of which five only are said to have been 
nunneries, all situated in the catholic Netherlands, and 
where the injunction of silence was dispensed with. There 

1 Haller and Manget. — Rees's Cyclopaedia. 



B R U N O. 191 

were nine monasteries of this order in England at .the dis- 
solution under Henry VIII. 

After St. Bruno bad governed this infant society for six 
years, he was invited to Rome by pope Urban II. who bad 
formerly been his scholar at Rheims, and now received him 
with every mark of respect and confidence, and pressed him 
to accept the archbishopric of Reggip. This however he 
declined, and the pope consented that be should withdraw 
into some wilderness on the mountains of Calabria, Bruno 
found a convenient solitude in the diocese of Squiliaci, 
where he settled in 1090,. with some new disciples, until 
his death, Oct. 6. 1101. There are only two letters of his 
remaining, one to Raoul le Verd, and the other to his 
monks, wbich are printed in a folio volume, entitled "S. 
Brunonis Opera at Vita," 1524, but the other contents of 
the volume belong to another St. Bruno, first a monk of 
Soleria in the diocese of Ast, and henfce called Astiensis. 
He distinguished himself at the council of Rome in 1079 
against Berenger, and was consecrated bishop of Segni by 
Gregory VII. He died in 1125, and is reckoned among 
the fathers of the church. He is reputed to have written 
with more elegance, clearness, and erudition, than most 
authors of his time, and there are several editions of his 
works. The Carthusian Bruno wrote on the Psalms and 
on some of St. Paul's epistles. He followed the system of 
Augustine concerning grace, but it seems doubtful if any 
genuine works of his remain, unless what we have men- 
tioned. ' 

BRUNO (Jordan), an Italian writer to whom atheism 
has been generally, but unjustly, imputed, was born at'Nola 
in the kingdom Qf Naples, about the middle of the six- 
teenth century. His talents are said to have been consi- 
derable, but this is hardly discoverable from his works : he 
early, however, set up for an inquirer and innovator, and 
very naturally found many things in the philosophy and 
theology then taught in Italy, which he could not compre- 
hend. Being fond of retirement and studj r , he entered 
into a monastery of Dominicans, but the freedom of his 
opinions, and particularly of his censures on the irregu- 
larities of the fraternity, rendered it soon necessary to 
leave bis order and his country. In 1582, he withdrew to 

* Butler's Lives of the Saints.— Dupin.—Mosheim, &c. 



19t BRUNO. 

i 

Geneva, where his heretical opinions gave offence to Cal- 
vin and Beza, and he was soon obliged to provide for biff 
safety by flight After a short stay at Lyons he came to 
Paris, and his innovating spirit recommended him to the 
notice of multitudes, who at this time declared open hos- 
tilities against the authority of Aristotle. In a public dis- 
putation, held in the royal academy, in 1586, he defended, 
three days successively, certain propositions concerning 
nature and the world, which, together with brief heads of 
the arguments, he afterwards published in Saxony, under 
the title of " Acrotismus," or " Reasons of the physical 
articles proposed against the Peripatetics at Paris." The 
contempt with which Bruno, in the course of these debates, 
treated Aristotle, exposed him to the resentment of the aca- 
demic professors, who were zealous advocates for the old sys- 
tem ; and he found it expedient to leave the kingdom of France. 
According to some writers, he now visited England, in th$ 
train of the French ambassador Castelneau, where he was hos- 
pitably received by sir Philip Sydney and sir Fulke Greville, 
and was introduced to queen Elizabeth. But though it is 
certain from his writings that be was in England, he pro- 
bably made this visit in some other part of his life, and we 
should suppose before this, in 1583 or 1584. For, about 
the middle of the same year in which he was at Paris, we 
find him, at Wittenburg, a zealous adherent of Luther. 
In this city he met with a liberal reception, and full per- 
mission to propagate his doctrines : but the severity with 
which he inveighed against Aristotle, the latitude of hid 
opinions in religion as well as philosophy, and the contempt 
with which he treated the masters of the public schools, 
excited new jealousies ; and complaints were lodge* 
against him before the senate of the university. To escapg 
the disgrace which threatened him, Bruno, after two years 
residence in Wittenburg, left that place, and took refuge 
in Helmstadt, where the known liberality of the duke of 
Brunswick encouraged him to hope for a secure asylum. 
But either through the restlessness of his disposition, or 
through unexpected opposition, he went next year to 
Francfort, to superintend an edition of his works, but be- 
fore it was completed was obliged again, probably from 
fear of persecution, to quit that city. His next residence 
was at Padua; where the boldness .with which he taught 
his new doctrines, and inveighed against the court of 
Rome, caused him to be apprehended and brought before- 



BRUNO. 193 

the inquisition at Venice. There he was tried, and con- 
victed of his errors. Forty days being allowed him to de- 
liberate, he promised to retract them, and as at the expira- 
tion of that term, he still maintained his errors, he obtained 
a further respite for forty days. At last, it appearing that 
ite imposed upon the pope in order to prolong his life, sen- 
tence was finally passed upon him on the 9th of February 
1600. He made no offer to retract during the week that 
was allowed him afterwards for that purpose, but under- 
went his punishment on the 17th, by being burnt at a stake. 

Many modern writers have very successfully wiped off 
the aspersion of Bruno's being an atheist; but, whatever 
he was with respect to religion, his character appears never 
to have risen much higher than that of a dealer in para- 
doxes. Brucker, who seems to have examined his works, 
and whose history we have chiefly followed in the pre- 
ceding account, says, that a luxuriant imagination supplied 
,him with wonderful conceptions, intelligible only to a few, 
which were never formed into a system. Not possessing 
that cool and solid judgment, and that habit of patient at- 
tention, which are necessary to a thorough investigation of 
subjects, he frequently embraced trifling and doubtful pro- 
positions as certain truths. His ideas are for the most part 
wild and fantastic, and he indulged himself in a most un- 
bounded liberty of speech. Some of his original concep- 
tions are indeed more luminous and satisfactory, and nearly 
coincide with the principles of philosophy afterwards re- 
ceived by Des Cartes, Leibnitz, and others.. But these 
sparks of truth are buried in a confused mass of extravagant 
and trifling dogmas, expressed in a metaphorical and in- 
tricate style, and unmethodically* arranged. Brucker 
thinks that his doctrine was not founded, as Bayle and La 
Croze maintain, on the principles of Spinozisra, but oil 
the ancient and absurd doctrine of emanatioiv 

His most celebrated philosophical pieces are. the follow-* 
jng : 1. De Umbris Idearum, " On Shadows of Ideas.'* 2. 
De l'lnfinito, Universo, et Mondi, " Of Infinity, the Uni- 
verse, and World." 3. Spaccio della Bestia triomfante, 
" Dispatches from the Triumphant Beast.'* 4. Oratio 
valedictoria habita in Academia Wittebergensi, " A fare- 
well Oration delivered in the University of Wittenberg.'* 
5. De Monade, Numero, et Figura, " Of Monad, Num- 
ber, ,and Figure." 6. Summa Terminorum Metaphysi- 
corum, " Summary of Metaphysical Terms." Of these 

Vol. VII. O 



194 B R U N O. 

the satirical work, " Dispatches from the Beast triumphant," 
is the most celebrated. Dr. Warton, in a note upon Pope's 
Works, asserts on the authority of Toland, that sir Philip 
Sidney was " the intimate friend and patron of the famous 
atheist Giordano Bruno, who was in a secret club with him 
and sir Fulk Greville, held in London in 1587, and that * 
the " Spaccio 1 ' was at that time composed and printed in 
London, and dedicated to sir Philip. 9 ' But, besides that 
this date must be wrong, sir Philip Sidney having died the 
preceding year, it appears evidently from the account of 
the "Spaccio" given in the Spectator, No. 389*, that it 
was a very harmless production, founded upon a poetical 
fiction, and little adapted to make any man a convert to 
atheism. . We refer, however, to Dr. Zouch's Memoirs of 
Sir Philip Sidney for an ample defence both of sir Philip, 
and Bruno, whose greatest crime, in the eyes of the inqui- 
sition, was rather Lutheranism than atheism. 1 

BRUNSFELS, or BRUNFELT (Otho), a physician of 
the sixteenth century, and one of the first modern resto- 

* " Nothing has more surprised the that it is pot to be wondered at, since 

learned in England, than the price there were so many scandalous stories 

which a small book, entitled Spaccio of the deities; upon which the author 

della Bestia triomphaute, bore in a late takes occasion to cast reflections upon 

auction. This book was sold for thirty all other religions, concluding that Ju- 

pouixls. As it was written by one piter, after a full hearing, discarded 

Jordanus Brunu?, a professed athefct, the deities out of heaven, and called 

with a design to depreciate rcl.gion, the stars by the names of moral vir- 

every one was apt to fancy, from the tues." 

extravagant price it bore, that there The price of this work above-men- 

must be something in it very formula- tioned is not quite correct, it was * 

ble. I must confess, that, happening sold at that time (1711) at the auction 

to get a sight of one of them myself, I of the library of Charles Bernard, esq. 

could not forbear perusing it with this for 2$l. aud purchased by Walter Cla-* 

apprehension ; but found there was so vel, esq. The same copy successively 

very little danger in it, that J shall came into the several collections of 

venture to give my readers a fair Mr. Jehn Nickolls, Mr. John Ames, 

account of the whole plan upon which sir Peter Thomson, and M. C. Tutet, 

this wonderful treatise is built. The esq. at the sale of whose library in 

author pretends, that Jupiter once 1786, it was bought by the late Sa- 

upon a time resolved on a reformation muel Tyssen, esq. for seven guineas* 

6f the constellations ; for which pur- Another copy was sold at Dr. Mead's 

pose having summoned the stars to- sale 1754, for four or five guineas, 

gether, he complains to them of the The worst that can be said of this book 

great decay of the worship of the gods, is, that Toland was fond of it, and 

which he tboifght so much the harder, very desirous t6 prove from sir P. Sid- 

having ealled several of those celestial ney's connection with the author, that 

bodies by the names of the heathen sir P. inclined to infidelity; hut from 

deities, and, by that means, made the this insinuation Dr. Zouch has ably 

heavens, as it were, a book of the vindicated him. » 

pagan theology. Momus tells him, 

i Brucker.— Gen. Diet. — Moreri. — Zouch's Memoirs of Sir Philip Sidney, p. 
337, &&—- Nichols's Bo wyer. 



* 



BRUNSFELS. . IM 

ters of botany, was born at Mentz, and originally brought' 
up to the church. After his theological studies he took 
the habit of the Carthusians of Mentz, but was one of the 
1 earliest converts to Lutheranism, and having made his es- 
cape from his monastery, became a zealous preacher of 
the reformed religion. This appears to have involved him 
with Erasmus, who, in Brunsfels' opinion, was rather a 
time-server. Having lost his voice, however, by a disor- 
der, he was obliged to give over preaching, and went to 
Strasburgh, where the government of the college was com- 
mitted to his care. During a residence of nine years in 
this pity he studied medicine, and was created doctor at 
Basil in' 1530. He was soon after invited to Berne in 
Swisserland, where he died six months after, Nov. 23 f 
1534. Whilst at Strasburgh, he published two small tracts 
to facilitate the study of grammar to children, annotations on 
the gospels, and on the acts of the apostles, and an answer to 
Erasmus's " Spongia," in defence of Hutten. The follow- 
ing are the principal of his botanical and medical works : 
<c Catalog us illustrium Medicorum," 1530, 4to. (i Herbarum 
vivae icones, ad naturae imitatipnem, summa cum diligentia 
et artificio efficiatse, cum effectibus earundem," 1530, 1531, 
1536, 3 vols. fol. The plates are much commended by 
Haller, who, on account of this work, ranks the author 
among the* restorers of botany. " Theses, seu communes 
loci totius Medicinae, etiam de usu Pharmacorum, Argen- 
tina," 1522, 8vo. " Onomasticon Medicinae, nomina con-* 
tinens omnium stir pi una, &c. Argent, 1534, folio. 1 

BRUNSWICK-OELS (Frederick Augustus, Dukr 
of), a general of infantry in the Prussian army, an hono- 
rary member of the royal academy'of sciences of Berlin, and, 
second cousin to his Britannic majesty, was born at Bruns- 
wick, Oct. 20, 1741. He was the second son of Charles, 
reigning duke of Brunswick, by the duchess Philippine- 
Charlotte, daughter of Frederick William I. king of Prus- 
sia, and sister to Frederick the Great. His education was 
intrusted to men of talents and virtue, and his progress wash 
in proportion. He entered the military service in 176], 
as colonel of his father's regiment of infantry in the allied 
army, vrnder the commanded in chief, his uncle, the duke 
Ferdinand. In that year, and in 1762, he distinguished 

* Moreri. — Melchior Adam. — Freheri Theatrum.— Stoerer's Life of LinnftUSj 
». $4,— Jortia's £ra8BUS.«-Haller and Manget, 

2 



1M- BRUNSWICK. 

himself in several actions. In 1763, he entered into the 
service of Frederick II. king of Prussia, and in 1768 mar~ 
ried the only daughter of the reigning duke of Wirtem- 
berg-Oels. From that time he fixed his .residence entirely 
at Berlin, where he devoted his time to military and lite-* 
rary studies. His father-in-law dying about the end of the 
year 1792, he succeeded him in the principality of Oels, 
to which he went in the month of June 1793. The follow- 
ing year he resigned all his military preferments, in order 
to attend to his principality, and was not more distin- 
guished as a statesman and a soldier than as a patron of 
learning and learned men, contributing liberally to the 
publication of many useful works. He died at Weimar 
Oct. 8, 1805. 

The following is a list of his works, which are in general 
but little known, as he printed them at his own expence, 
principally for distribution among his friends. 1. " Con- 
siderazioni sopra le cose della grandezza dei Romani, 
trad, del Montesquieu," Berlin, 17 64, 8vo. 2. " Refles- 
sioni critiche sopra il carattere e le gesta d'Alessandro 
Magno," Milan, 1764, 8vo. This was translated both into 
French and English, the latter in 1767 ; and a new edition 
of the original was reprinted at Berlin in 1803, 8vo. 

3. A German translation of the €€ Heureusement," a co- 
medy of Rochon de Chabannes, Brunswick, 1764, 8yo. 

4. A German translation of the tragedy of " Regulus," 
Potsdam, 1767, 8vo. 5. " Discours sur les Grand 
Hommes," Berlin, 1768, 8vo, and ibid. 1803. 6. A French 
translation of Brandes' " Ariane a Naxos." 7. " xhe 
Thoughts of a Cosmopolite on Air Balloons/ 9 in German, 
Hamburgh, 1784, 8vo. 8. " A' Discourse on taking the 
oath, Oct. 2, 1786," in German, Berlin, 1786, 8 vo. 9. "In- 
structions for his regiment, &c." in German, ibid. 1791, 
Svo, with military figures. 10. " The military history of 
prince Frederic Augustus of Brunswick- Lunebourg, &c. ,i 
in German, Oels, 1797, 4to, with a portrait and twenty 
plans and charts. 11. u Journal plaisant, his tori que, po- 
litique, etliteraire, a Oels," from July 1793 to July 1795. 
He left also several works in manuscript, principally on 
military tactics. 1 

BRUSCHIUS (Gaspar), a Latin historian and poet, 
was born at Egra in Bohemia, 1518. He was devoted to 

* Diet. Hi*. 



BRU8CHIU& 197 

books from his childhood, and especially to poetry; in 
which he so happily succeeded, that be could make a great 
number of verses, and those not bad ones, extempore. 
He began early to publish some of them on several sub* 
jects ; and acquired so much reputation, that he attained 
to the poetical crown, to the dignity of poet laureat, and 
of count palatine, which honour he received at Vienna 
from Ferdinand of Austria, king of the Romans, in 1552. 
His business in that city was to present a work to Maximi- 
lian, king of Hungary, which he had dedicated to him, 
the €€ First century of the German monasteries." In his 
return from Vienna, he stopped at Passau ; where, finding 
a patron ki Wolfgang bishop of Salms, he resolved to set- 
tle, and to remove his library and family. He hoped that 
he could better go on there with a great work he had un- 
dertaken, which was, " The history of all the bishoprics and 
bishops of Germany." He had travelled much, and looked 
into several records and libraries, to gather materials for 
his purpose. How long he staid there does not appear ; 
but he was at Basil in June 1153, and lived in the citadel 
of Oporin, Arx Oporina : the usual way of speaking of 
that famous printer's house, which stood on a rising ground. 
Here he published writings he had finished at Passau, 
some in prose, and others in verse. Bruschius was mar- 
ried, but had no children. He was far from being rich ; 
but his poetical patrons assisted him, and he received pre* 
sents also from the abbots and abbesses, whose monasteries 
be described. He was particularly well received by the 
abbess of the convent of Caczi, and obtained some pre- 
sents from her, which, Meichior Adam says, was owing to 
his having described the antiquities of that convent. The 
liberalities of some abbots, while he was with Oporin at 
Basil, enabled him to buy a new suit of clothes ; but when 
he found that appearing well dressed in the streets pro- 
cured him many marks of respect from the vulgar, he tore 
his new finery to pieces, " as slaves (says the same author) 
that had usurped their master's honours. 9 ' 

This unhappy man was murdered in the forest of Sea- 
lingenbach, between Rottemberg on the Tauber and 
Winsheim, in 1559; and it was believed that this assas- 
sination was concerted and carried into execution by some 
gentlemen against whom Bruschius was about to write 
something. His ecclesiastical history of Germany is said 

to savour of Lutheranism, with which he was supposed to, 



t98 BEUSCRIUS. 

be strongly tainted, from his taking every slight occasion 
to speak ill of Rome and of the popes. It was published 
under the title " De omnibus totius Germanise Episco- 
patibus Epitome, &c." Nuremberg, 1 549 ; and " Monas- 
teriorum Germanise pracipuorum, &c. Centuria Prima," 
Ingolstad, 1551. He published also, in his nineteenth 
year, " Tabula Philosophise partitionem continens," Tu- 
bingen, 1537, and other works, enumerated in Gesner's 
Bibliotheca. * 

BRUTO (John Michael), a very learned Venetian, 
was born about 1518, and studied at Padua. It appears 
from his letters, that he was obliged to leave his country 
as an exile ; but he does not say upon what account, only 
that it was without any blemish to his honour. He tra- 
velled much, passing part of his life in Spain, England, 
France, Germany, Transylvania, and Poland. Notwith- 
standing this itinerant kind of life, he acquired great 
learning, as appears from his notes on Horace, Caesar, 
Cicero, &c. He was in Transylvania in 1574, having 
been invited thither by prince Stephen, in order to com- 
pose a history of that country. One of his letters, dated 
from Cracow, Nov. 23, 1577, informs us, that he had fol- 
lowed that prince, then king of Poland, in the expedition 
into Prussia. He had a convenient apartment assigned 
him in the castle of Cracow, that he might apply himself 
the better to his function of historiographer. He left Po- 
land after the death of that monarch, and lived with Wil- 
liam of St. Clement, ambassador from the king of Spain 
to the imperial court, where he was honoured with the 
title of his imperial majesty's historiographer. He died 
afterwards in Transylvania, in 1594, in his seventy-sixth 

year. 

His writings, become very scarce, were so earnestly 
sought after by the best judges, that there was great joy 
in the republic of letters, on hearing that Mr. Cromer had 
undertaken to publish a new edition of them. The first 
part of that design was accomplished in 1698, Berlin, 8vo. 
The Cracow edition was in 1582. Bruto promises in one 
of his letters, to add another to them, wherein he designed 
to. treat of the custom of giving the same lofty titles to 
persons whom we write to in Latin, as are given in com- 
mon languages. There are but few countries in which 

} Gen, Dict.^Moreri.-T-Saxii Onomaat. 



BRUTO. I9f 

they are more nice in this point than in Poland ; and yet 
Bruto would not conform to the new style, not even in 
writing to some Polish lords, but dispensed with all cere- 
monies that might make him deviate frqm the purity of the 
ancient language of Rome. In a letter he wrote to John 
Poniatowski, he says: "This is my first letter to you, 
which I write in the Roman manner, as I used to do even 
to the king. I can bring myself to every thing else, can . 
love you, obey you, and always regard you, which 1 shall 
do very willingly, as you highly deserve. But when I 
have any thing to write to you in .Latin, suffer me, without 
offence, to write according to the use of the Latin tongue, 
for I cannot understand that I am writing to your great* 
nesses, your magnificences, &c. which exist no where on 
this side of the moon : I am writing to you." Bruto, 
though whimsical in this respect, was at least classical, as 
it is certain that ancient Rome had no such usage in the 
time of its greatest glory, and of its most accomplished 
politeness. 

It is said, that the history of Florence, composed by 
our Bruto, and printed at Lyons in 1562, under the title 
4i Florentine Historise, Libri octo priores," is not favour- 
able to the bouse of Medicis ; and that it greatly dis- 
pleased the duke of Florence, on which it was so far 
suppressed, that few copies are now to be met with. He 
published also " De Origine Venetiarum," Leyden, 1560, 
8vo, and " Epistolae," Berlin, 1690, Svo. 1 

BRUYERE (John, de la), one of those celebrated 
persons whose writings attract universal admiration, while 
their lives pass on in one uniform tenour, without incident 
or adventure, was born in 1639, 1640, or 1644, (for we 
have seen all these dates given), in a village of France, 
near the town of Dourdan, in that part of the late province 
of the Isle of France which is now denominated the de- 
partment of the Seine and Oise. Of his education, or of 
his youthful manners, we have no information. His first 
situation appears to have been at Caen, , in the province 
of Normandy, where he had an office in the collection of 
the revenue. His literary talents, however, became soon 
too conspicuous to permit him to remain long in a situation 
/so little corresponding with the expanding and elevating 

1 Gen. Diet.— Moreri.— Saxii Onomast. 



3©0 BKUYE B E. 

views of genius. The illustrious Bossuet appointed him 
to attend one of the royal children of France, to instruct 
him in history, with a pension of a thousand crowns a year; 
With this he might be considered at that period, and in 
that country, as in a state of affluence ; and the literary 
distinctions, then the most courted by aspiring minds, 
were not withheld from him ; for, in 1693, be was eleeted 
by the express command of Lewis XIV. one of the forty 
members of the French academy. But he did not long 
enjoy that affluence which afforded him leisure to cultivate 
the fields of literature, nor the distinctions which he so 
well merited, and which were accompanied by the uni- 
versal admiration of his countrymen, and indeed of all 
Europe. An apoplectic fit removed him from this transi- 
tory scene, in the year 1696, and in the fifty-third year 
of his age. 

M. de la Bruyere was an ingenious philosopher, devoid 
of all ambition, content to 6njoy in tranquillity his friends 
and his books, and selecting both with judgment. Pleasure 
be neither sought, nor endeavoured to avoid. Ever dis- 
posed to the indulgence of a modest and placid joy, with 
a happy talent of exciting it, he was polite in liis manners, 
and wise in his conversation ; an enemy to every kind of 
affectation, and even to that of displaying the brilliancy of 
wit. The work by which he was distinguished was " The' 
Characters of Theophrastus, translated from the Greek, 
with the Manners of the present age.'* " These characters,'* 
says Voltaire, " may be justly ranked among the extraor- 
dinary productions of the age. Antiquity furnishes no 
examples of such a work. A rapid, concise, and nervous 
style ; animated and picturesque expressions ; a use of 
language altogether new, without offending against its 
established rules, struck the public at first ; and the allu- 
sions to living persons, which are crowded in almost every 
page, completed its success. When the author showed 
his work in manuscript to Malesieux, the latter told him 
that the book would have many readers, and its author 
many enemies *. It somewhat sunk in the opinion of men, 

* La Bruyere used to frequent the day, taking the manuscript of bis 

shop of a bookseller named Micha'.let, " Characters" out of his pocket, be of- 

where he aroused himself with reading fered it toMichallet, saying: Will you 

the new pamphlets, and playing with print this ? I know not whether you 

the bookseller's daughter, an engaging will gain any thing by it, but, should 

child, of whom he was yery fond. One it succeed, let the profits, make the 



BRUYERE. 201 

when that whole generation, whose follies it attacked, 
were passed away ; yet, as it contains many things appli- 
cable to all times and places, it is more than probable that 
it will never be forgotten." 

Beside this 1 admirable work, he had begun "Dialogues 
on Quietism,' 9 which were finished after his death by abb£ 
Dupin, and published in 1699, 12 mo. 

The best .French editions of his Characters are those of 
Amsterdam, 1741, 2 vols. 12 mo, and of Paris, 1750, 2 
vols. 12mo, and in 1765, 1 vol. 4 to. The English trans- 
lation of them is in 2 vols. 8vo, by Rowe, 1713, with a 
tedious account of his life and writings, by M. Coste. 
This last contains the Theophxastus, Bruyere's Characters, 
with a key, his speech on admission into the French aca- 
demy, and an imitation of Bruyere by Rowe. ' 

BRUYN (Cornelius), painter, and a famous traveller, 
born in 1652, at the Hague, began his travels through 
Russia, Persia, and the East Indies in 1674, and did not 
end them till 1708 > they were printed at Amsterdam; the 
voyage to the Levant in 1714, fol. and those of Russia, 
Persia, &c. in 1718, 2 vols, folio, which last were translated 
into English, and published in 1736, 2 vols, folio. The 
(edition of 1718 is greatly esteemed on account of the 
plates; but the edition of Rouen, of 1725, of 5 vols. 4to, 
is more useful, as the abb£ Bannier has improved the style, 
enriched it with many excellent notes, and has added to 
it the voyage of Desmousseaux, &c. Bruyn is an in- 
quisitive and instructive traveller ; but he is^not always ac- 
curate, and his diction is far from being elegant. He 
died in 1719.* 

BRUYS (Francis), born at Serrieres in the Maconnois 
in 1708, quitted his country in order to pursue his studies 
at Geneva, from whence he went to the Hague, where he 
had some relations, and there he became a Calvinist. A 
dispute with some divines obliging him to leave Holland, 
he retired into Germany, from whence he returned to 
. France. He there recanted, and died some time after 

dowry of my little friend here." The work amounted to a large sum ; and 

bookseller, though doubtful with re. with this fortune Miss Micoallet was 

•pact to the result, ventured on the afterwards advantageously married, 

publication ; the first impression was Month. Rev. vol. XI. N. S. from 

toon sold off, several editions were af- • the Memoirs of the Royal Aca- 

terwards sold, and the profits of the demy of Berlin. 

1 Life prefixed to Works.— Moreri. — Diet. Hist, — Saxii Onomast. 
* Dipt. Hist.— Saxii Onomftft, 



202 BRUYS. 

at Dijon, in 1738, being only thirty years old. He pub- 
lished: 1. " Critique desinteress6e des journaux litte- 
raires," J 730, 3- vols. 12mo. 2. " History of the Popes," 
from St. Peter to Benedict XIII. inclusive, 1732, 5 vols. 
4to. 3. " Memoires historiques, critiques, et litteraires," 
2 vols. 12mo, in which are many anecdotes of the cha- 
racters and works of the learned men he had been 
acquainted with in the different countries he had vi- 
sited. The first title of this work, was : " Reflexions 
serieuses et badines sur les Suisses, les Hollandois, et les 
Allemans, &c." which he thought proper to change. 
4. " Reflexions en forme de lettres adresse£s au prochain 
synod qui doit s' assembler a la Haye, sur l'affaire de M. 
Saurin, et sur ceile de M. Maty," Hague, 1730, 12mo. 
This alludes to a dispute with Saurin and Maty, which 
latter had been deposed from his ministry for his opinions 
on the Trinity. Bruys concealed his name in this work 
under the' letters M. F. B. D. S. E. M. P. D. G. (i.e. Fran- 
cois Bruys, de Serrieres en Ma^onnois, professeur de 
Grammaire.) 5. Tacite avec des notes historiques et po- 
litiques, pour servir de continuation st ce que M. Amelot 
de Houssai avoit traduit de cet auteur," Hague, 1730, 6 vols. 
12mo. 6. " Le postilion, ouvrage historique, critique, po- 
litique, &c," 1733-6, 4 vols. 12 mo. His history of the 
popes was said to have been the production of a Benedictine 
of St. Maur, and the plan and some of the chapters having 
.faller* into the hands of Bruys, he prepared it- for the 
press in the shape we now find it. l 

BRUYS (Peter de), founder of the sect, if it may be so 
called, of the Petrobrussians, in the twelfth century, ap- 
pears to have propagated his doctrines chiefly in Langue- 
doc and Provence, and after a laborious ministry of twenty 
years, during which he had collected a great number of 
followers, was burnt at St. Gilles in 1 130, by the populace 
instigated by the popish clergy. His chief tenets were, 
that no persons ought to be baptised unless adults ; that it 
was an idle superstition to build churches, as God will ac- 
cept sincere worship wherever it is offered, and that such 
churches as had been erected were to be destroyed; with 
all crucifixes or instruments of superstition; that the real 
body and blood of Christ were not exhibited in the eucha- 
rist, but were represented only by figures and symbols, and 

* Moreri. — Diet, Hist. 



B ft V Y 9. 203 

that the oblations, prayers, &c. of the living were of no use 
to the dead. * 

BRUZEN. See MARTINIERE. 

BRYAN, or BRYANT (Sir Francis), an English poet 
and warrior, was born of a genteel family, educated at Ox- 
ford, and afterwards spent some time in travelling abroad. 
In 1 522, he attended, in a military capacity, the earl of 
Surrey on his expedition to the coast of Britany, and com- 
manded the troops in the attack of the town of Morlaix, 
which he took and burnt. For this service he was knighted 
on the spot by the earl, which Tanner sayB took place in 
Germany, 1532, instead of Britany, 1522. In 1528 he 
was in Spain, but in what service is doubtful. In 1529 he 
was sent ambassador to France, and the following year to 
Rome on account of the king's divorce. He had also been 
there in 1522, in the same capacity, when cardinal Wol- 
sey's election to the holy see was in agitation. In 1533 he 
was one of those sent by Henry to be witnesses to the in- 
terview between the pope and the king of France at Mar- 
seilles. He was gentleman of the privy chamber to Henry 
VIII. and to his successor Edward VI. in the beginning pf 
whose reign he marched with the protector against the 
Scots, and after the battle of Musselborough in 1547, in 
which he commanded the light horse with great bravery, 
he was made banneret. In 1549* he was appointed chief 
governor of Ireland, by the title of lord chief justice, and 
there hje married the countess of Ormond. He appears to 
have died in 1550, and was buried at Waterford. He was 
nephew to John Bourchier, lord Berners, the translator of 
Froissart. 

He translated from the French of Alaygri, " A Dispraise 
of the life of a Courtier," which Alaygri had translated 
from the Castilian language, in which it was originally 
written by Guevara, London, 1548, 8vo. Several of the 
" Poems by uncertain authors," printed with those of 
Surrey and Wyat, are supposed to have been his produc- 
tion. He left also in MS. letters written from Rome con- 
cerning the king's divorce, and various letters of state, 
which Ant. Wood says he had seen. Dodd accuses sir 
Francis Bryan of having administered to the extravagant 
pleasures of Henry VIII. but perhaps he was not more 
culpable in this respect than Henry's other courtiers, and 

1 Mosheim. — Moreri. 



20* BRYANT. 

it is in his favour that he retained the confidence of the 
succeeding government ' 

BRYANT (Jacob), one of the most learned English 
scholars of the eighteenth century, who adds a very illus- 
trious name to the " Worthies of Devon," was born at Ply- 
mouth in that county in 1715. His father held an office in 
the custom-house, but before his son arrived at his seventh 
year, was removed thence into Kent, a circumstance which 
may be mentioned as a proof of Mr. Bryant's extraordinary 
jmemory ; for, in a conversation with the late admiral Bar* 
rington, not long before his death, when some local cir- 
cumstances in respect to Plymouth were accidentally men- 
tioned, Mr. Bryant discovered so perfect a recollection of 
them, that his friend could scarcely be persuaded he had 
not been very recently on the spot, though he had never 
visited the place of his nativity after the removal of bis 
father. Mr. Bryant received his grammatical education 
first under the rev. Sam. Thornton of Ludsdown in Kent, 
and afterwards at Eton, and undoubtedly was one of the 
brightest luminaries of that institution. The traditions of 
his extraordinary attainments still remain, and particularly 
of some verses which he then wrote. From Eton he pro- 
ceeded to King's college, Cambridge, where he took his 
degree of A. B. in 1740, and A, M. in 1744, obtained a 
fellowship, and was equally distinguished by his love of 
learning, and his proficiency in every branch of the aca- 
demic course. He was afterwards first tutor to sir Thomas 
Stapylton, and then to the marquis of Blandford, now duke 
of Marlborough, and to his brother lord Charles Spencer, 
when at Eton school, which office, on account of an in- 
flammation in his eyes, be quitted in 1744, and his place 
was supplied by Dr. Erasmus Saunders; but Mr. Bryant, 
after his recovery in 1746, again returned to his office, and 
in 1756 was appointed secretary to the late duke of Marl- 
borough, when master-general of the ordnance, and -ac-% 
companied him into Germany. His grace also promoted 
him to a lucrative appointment in the ordnance-office. 

As Mr. Bryant had long outlived his contemporaries* 
few particulars, except what we have just related, are 
known, of his early life and habits. He appears, even 
while connected with the late duke of Marlborough, whose 

* Ath. Ox. vol. 1.— Warton's Hist, of Poetry, vol. IH.-^Phillips's Theaftruai 
p. 49.— Podd's Ch, Hist. roi. I. 



B R Y A N t 20* 

i 

family remained his kind patrons during the whole of his 
life, to have devoted himself to study, and to that parti- 
cular branch which respects the ancient history of nations. 
Whatever his fortune might be, he appears to have been 
satisfied if it supplied the means of extending his studies 
in retirement, and we do not find that he ever inclined to 
pursue any of the learned professions. One of his con- 
temporaries, the late rev. William Cole of Milton, informs 
lis, in his MS Athense Cantab, (in Brit. Mus.) that he had 
twice refused the mastership of the Charter-house, which 
one time was actually granted to him by a majority of the 
governors ; and notice of his nomination was sent to him 
by Mr. Hetherington, a gentleman who afterwards left him 
his executor and 3,000/. as a legacy ; but at what time 
these offers were made, Mr. Cole has not specified. It is 
certain, however, that he early formed his plan of life, a 
long life spent entirely in literary pursuits, and persevered 
in it with uncommon assiduity and steadiness, consecrating 
Jiis talents to the best purposes of learning and religion. 

His first publication was "Observations and Inquiries 
relating to various parts of Ancient History: containing 
Dissertations on the wind Euroclydon, and on the Island 
Melite, together with an account of Egypt in its most early 
state, and of the Shepherd Kings; wherein the time of 
. their coming, the province which they particularly pos- 
' seased, and to which the Israelites afterwards succeeded, is 
endeavoured to be stated. The whole calculated to throw 
light on the history of that ancient kingdom, as well as on 
the histories of the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Babylonians, 
Edomites, and other nations," 1767, 4to. In this volume, 
with great modesty, and yet with well-grounded resolution, 
he attacks Bochart, Grotius, and Bentley, who supposed 
that Euroclydon, the name of a wind mentioned in Acts 
xxvii. 14tb verse, is a misnomer, and ought to be read Eu- 
roaquilo, and very ably supports the present reading. In 
proving that the island Melite, mentioned in. the last chap- 
ter of the Acts, is not Malta, he has to contend with Gro- 
tius., Cluverius, Beza, Bentley, and Bochart, and his argu- 
ments on this question are upon the whole' conclusive. It 
happened that the hypothesis he suggested was brought 
forward about the same time by an ingenious Frenchman, 
and neither of them was acquainted with the opinion of the 
other. The remainder of this volume evinces uncommon 
research and acuteness, but not unmixed with that inch- 



S06 BRYANT. 

nation to bold conjecture and fanciful speculation which 
more or less influenced the composition of all Mr. Bryant's- 
works. His next communication to the public, and the 
work on which his character as a scholar must ultimately 
rest, was his " New System or Analysis of Ancient My- * 
thology ; wherein an Attempt is made to divest Tradition 
of Fable, and to reduce Truth to its original Purity." Of 
this publication the first and second volumes came forth 
together, in 1774, and the third followed two years after. It 
being his professed design to present a history of the Ba- 
bylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Canaanites, Helladians, 
lonians, Leleges, Dorians, Pelasgi, and other ancient na- 
tions, his researches for this purpose were not only of ne- 
cessity recondite, but in many instances uncertain ; but to 
facilitate his passage through the mighty labyrinth which 
led to his primary object, he not only availed himself of 
the scattered fragments of ancient history wherever be 
could find them, but also of a variety of etymological aids; 
for being persuaded that the human race were the offspring 
of one stock, and conceiving thence that their language in 
the beginning was one, this favourite notion was exempli- 
fied by him in the investigation of radical terms, and ap- 
plication of these as collateral aids. As his knowledge of 
the oriental dialects was very confined, upon -some occa- 
sions he has indulged too freely to fancy; yet bis defects 
in this kind of learning form a strong plea in his favour ; 
for if, without fully understanding these languages, he has 
succeeded in tracing out so many radicals as his table of 
them exhibits, and more especially if he has been right in 
explaining them, it wjll follow that his explanations must 
be founded on truth, and therefore are not chimerical. In 
opposition, however, to them, Mr. Bryant experienced 
some severe and petulant attacks : first, from a learned- 
Dutchman, in a Latin review of his work ; and shortly after 
from the late Mr. Richardson, who was privately assisted 
by sir William Jones ; a circumstance which there is rea- 
son to think Mr. Bryant never knew. Mr. Richardson, in 
the preface to his Persian Dictionary, has no doubt suc- 
cessfully exposed some of Mr. Bryant's etymological mis- 
takes with regard to words of eastern origin. Bryant bad 
a favourite theory with regard to the Amonians, the origi- 
nal inhabitants of Egypt, whose name, as well as descent, 
he derives from Ham, but Richardson has stated an in- 
superable objection to the derivation of the name, for 



.j 



BRYANT. 207 

though the Greeks and Latins used Ammon and Hammon 
indifferently, yet the Heth in Ham is a radical, not mutable 
or omissible ; and had the Greeks or Latins formed a word 
from it, it would have been Chammon, and not Ammon, 
even with the aspirate. To these and other strictures, Mr. 
Bryant replied in an anonymous pamphlet, of which he 
printed only a few copies for the perusal of his friends*; 
and that part of his work which relates to the Apameart 
medal having been particularly attacked, especially in the 
Gentleman's Magazine, he defended himself in " A Vin- 
' dication of the Apamean Medal, and of the inscription: 
NX1E, together with an illustration of another coin struck 
at the same place in honour of the emperor Severus." This 
was first published in the Archaeologia, and afterwards se- 
parately, 1775, 4to, and although what he offered on the 
subject was lightly treated hy some, whose knowledge in 
medallic history is allowed to be great, yet the opinion of 
professor Eckhel, the first medallist of his age, is decidedly 
in favour of Mr. Bryant. And whatever may be the merit, t 
in the opinion of the learned, of Mr. Bryant's " New Sys- 
tem" at large, no person can possibly dispute, that a very 
uncommon store of learning is perceptible through the 
whole; that it abounds with great originality of concep- 
tion, much perspicacious elucidation, and the most happy- 
explanations on topics of the highest importance : in a 
word, that it stands forward amongst the first works of its 
age. 

About this time was published Mr. Wood's "Essay on 
the original genius and writings of Homer." Of this post- 
humous work, Mr. Bryant was the editor, the author hav- 
ing left his MSS. to his care ; and in the same year, the. 
" Vindiciae Flavianae," a tract on the much disputed testi- 
mony of Josephus to Christ, was printed, and a few co- 
pies sent to a bookseller in either university ; but as the 
pamphlet appeared without the name of its author, and no 
attention was shewed it, Mr. Bryant recalled them, and 
satisfied himself with distributing the copies thus returned 

« 

* Mr. Richardson returned to the dressed to the Author, by Jacob Un- 
charge in 1778, by publishing " A ant, esq." 8vo. It appears by this 
Dissertation on the Languages, Litera- work that both parties had now lost 
ture, and Manner* of Eastern Nations, their temper, and justice obliges u.s 
Originally prefixed to his Dictionary, to say that Mr. Bryant shewed the 
&c Together with further remarks first symptoms Q? a defect in that 
on a New Analysis of Ancient Mytho- article. 
Jpgy, in answer to An Apology, ad* 



308 . BRYANT. 

amongst a few particular friends. The new light, how- 
ever, which Mr. Bryant threw upon the subject, and the 
acuteness with which the difficulties attending it were dis- 
cussed, soon brought the work into notice, and Mr. Bryant 
published it with his name in 1780, and has effectually vih* 
dicated the authenticity of the passage in question. It id 
no mean testimony of his success in this undertaking, that 
Dr. Priestley confessed that Mr. Bryant had made a com- 
plete convert of him* That his conversion, however, ex- 
tended no farther than the present subject, appeared in the 
same year, when Mr. Bryant published " An Address to 
Dr. Priestley, upon his doctrine of Philosophical Neces- 
sity illustrated," 8vo, which the doctor with his usual ra- 
pidity, answered in " A Letter to Jacob Bryant, esq." 
Dr. Priestley, indeed, was not likely to be persuaded by a 
writer who insinuated that his " necessity" of philoso- 
phers was no other than the " predestination" of Calvinists. 
With respect to the " Vindiciae Flavianae," it yet remains 
to be mentioned that there is a great affinity between this 
publication, and the observations on the same subject of a 
learned Frenchman. See a letter to Dr. Kippis, at the 
end of his life of Dr. Lardner, by Dr. Henley, where the 
arguments for and against the authenticity of the passage 
are distinctly stated. 

The poems attributed to Rowley having been published 
by Mr. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Bryant's attention was next drawn 
to them, and in 1781 he published " Observations on the 
Poems of Thomas Rowley, in which the authenticity of 
these poems is ascertained," 2 vols. 12mo. From the com- 
munications of his friend Dr. Glynn, and his own inquiries 
at Bristol, Mr. Bryant acquired such information as con- 
vinced him, that they had their foundation in reality, and 
were not entirely of Chatterton's fabrication ; but though 
he failed to produce conviction, his book discovers consi- 
derable talent, as well as much knowledge of English an- 
tiquities and literature. 

The hypothesis of Mr. Bryant in reference to one ori- 
ginal language was always kept in view by him, and as 
researches were extended on all sides to obtain elucidations, 
the language of the gypsies engaged his attention; ac- 
cordingly the collections which he made from it, were 
published in the Archaeologia, voL VII. entitled w Collec- 
tions on the Zingara, or Gypsey language." 

In 1783 was printed, at the expence of the duke of 



BRYANT. 20f 

Marlborough, for private distribution, that splendid work, 
" The Marlborough Gems," under the title of " Gemwa- 
rum antiquarum delectus ex praestantioribus desumptus ia 
Dactylotheca Ducis Marburiensis." Thfc 6rst volume of 
the exposition of these gems was written in Latin by Mr. 
-Bryant, and translated into French by Mr. Maty. That of 
the second was written by Dr. Cole, prebendary of West- 
minster, and translated by Mr. Dutens. The friendship 
which subsisted between Mr. Bryant and the family of his 
patron, prompted him on all occasions to. attend to their 
wishes, and to this disposition the public owe his " Treatise 
on the Authenticity of the Scriptures, and the Truth of the 
Christian Religion," 1792, 8vo, which was written at the 
request of the dowager lady Pembroke, and is an excellent 
book for popular instruction. In two years after he pub- 
lished a large volume, entitled " Observations upon the 
Plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians ; in which is shewn 
the peculiarity of those judgments, and their correspond- 
ence with the rites and idolatry of that people ; with a 
* prefatory Discourse concerning the Grecian Colonies from 
Egypt," 8vo. This is certainly to be reckoned amongst 
Mr. Bryant's best performances, and as such will be stu- 
diously read. 

Professor Dal z el having communicated to the royal so- 
ciety of Edinburgh, and afterwards published in a separate 
volume, M. le Chevalier's " Description of the Plain of 
Troy," Mr. Bryant, ' who many years before had not only 
considered, but written his sentiments on the Trojan war, 
first published, in 1795, his Observations on M. le Cheva,- 
lier's treatise, and, in 1796, a Dissertation concerning the 
war itself, and the expedition of the Grecians as described 
by Homer ; with the view of shewing that no such expe- 
dition was ever undertaken, and that no such city in Phry- 
gia existed. Of this singular publication we shall only 
notice, that on the one side it has been remarked that " for 
the repose of Mr. Bryant's well-earned fame, it probably 
would have been better had this dissertation never been 
written. Even the high authority with which he is armed 
could not warrant him in controverting opinions so long 
maintained and established among historians, and in dis- 
proving facts so well attested by the most extensive evi- 
dence. Great and natural was the surprize of the literary 
world on the, appearance of this publication ; and very few, 
if any, were the proselytes to the new doctrine which it 

VquVIL P 



ftie BRYANT. 

inculcates. It was answered by Mr. Gilbert Wakefield, in 
a very indecent letter to Mr. Bryant ; and in a style more 
Worthy of the subject by J. B. 8. Morrit, esq. of Rokeby 
park, near Greta bridge ;" and by Dr. Vincent. On the 
other, hand, it has been suggested, that " the testimony of 
antiquity goes for nothing in this case, as the whole de- 
pends on the authority of Homer ; and unless authors can 
be cited anterior to him, or coeval with him, or who did 
not derive their information from him, or some of his tran- 
scribers, the whble history of the war .must rest on his au* 
thority ; and if his authority were equal to his genius, the 
transactions which he records would stand in need of no 
other support. But, certainly, as the subject stands at 
present, were the alternative proposed to us, we would 
rather reject the whole as a fable, than receive the half as 
authentic history." 

In the following year Mr. Bryant submitted to the pub* 
lie a work of a different kind and character, under the title 
of " The sentiments of Philo Judeeus concerning the 
AOrOZ, or Word of God, together with large extracts from 
his writings, compared with the scriptures in many other 
particular and essential doctrines of the Christian reli- 
gion," 1797, 8vo. But, learned and curious as this treatise 
unquestionably is, it appears to have interested the 'gene- 
ral reader less, perhaps, than any of his other productions* 
In addition to those already noticed may be added his 
" Observations on famous controverted passages -in Justin 
Martyr and Josephus," and a pamphlet addressed to Mr* 
Melmoth, written with less temper than fnigbt have been 
wished. Mr. Bryant closed his labours with a qfl&rto vo- 
lume of u Dissertations on the prophecy of Balaam ; the, 
standing still of the sun in the time of Joshua; the jaw* 
bone of the ass with which Samson slew the Philistines; 
and the history of Jonah and the whale :" subjects in them* 
selves exceedingly curious, and treated with much inge* 
nuity; but these tracts having been written above thirty 
years betfdre, Mr. Bryant, in revising, made so many aU 
terations, as, through a defect of memory, render the 
remarks in one part inconsistent with those in another, 
which materially diminished the value of the whole. Other 
writings to a considerable extent remain in the hands of 
his executor, and various small poems, verses, &c. are 
still recollected as the production of his early years. Of 
this sort were his incomparable verses to Bel Cooke ; bis. 



B E Y A N T. 211 

ludifcrous dissertation on pork, and his apotheosis of a cat, 
juvenile pieces, which show that he had a ^considerable ta- 
lent for humour. 

In forming a general estimate of Mr. Bryant's literary 
character, it will be found that, as a classical scholar, he 
had few equals; his acquaintance with history, and the , 
topics of general information, was of very uncommon ex- 
tent, but from the want of Oriental literature, and the 
stricter sciences, he yielded too often to the impulses of 
a vigorous fancy. It will, notwithstanding, be found from 
repeated perusals of his writings, that be deservedly ranks 
amongst the first men of his age, and from having conse- 
crated his great talents and acquisitions to the service of 
religion, will be ever entitled to the veneration of mankind. 

In his person Mr. Bryant was lower and more delicately 
formed than men in general, and, consequently, less ca- 
pable of strong exercise : but in early life he had great 
agility, particularly in swimming, a circumstance which 
enabled him to save Dr. Barnard, afterward head-master 
tff Eton, when drowning. In his ordinary habits of life he 
was remarkable for his temperance, and though his time 
arid studies were principally devoted to literature and the 
pursuit of truth, yet his conversation with those he re- 
ceived and conversed with was uncommonly sprightly, as 
he never failed to mix entertaining anecdote with instruc- 
tion. In his person he w^s particularly neat, and in his 
deportment courteous. His liberality was often conspL* 
cuous, and the spirit of religion diffused itself through all 
bis actions. As few comparatively live so long, instances 
of such exemplary merit can but rarely be found. He 
tried, after a long residence at Cypenham, near Windsor, 
Nov. 14, 1804, of a^mortincation in his leg, occasioned by 
a hurt from the tilting of a chair in reaching down a book - 
from its' shelf. At his own desire, Mr. Bryant was interred 
in his parish church, beneath the seat he there occupied. 
He left his valuable library to King's college, Cambridge ; 
20002. to the society for propagating the gospel, and 10OQ/ t 
to the superannuated collegers of Eton school, to be dis- 
posed of as the provost and fellows think proper. * 

ERYDAL, or BRIDAL (John), a law-writer and an- 
tiquary, son and heir of John Brydal, esq. of the Rolls 

1 From various periodical Journals.— Rees'tf and Brewster's Cyclopedia.— » 
Baldwin'* Literary Journal, vol. IV.— Monthly and Crit. Reviewi.— >NichoU'» 
Life of Bowyer.— Q*nL Mag . ke. 

T 2 



212 fe R Y D A L. 

ff 

Liberty, was born in Somersetshire about 1635, and be* 
came a commoner of Queen's college, Oxford, in Michael* 
mas term, 1651, where he took a degree. in arts in 1655, 
but left the university without completing it by deter- 
mination. He then settled iu Lincoln's inn, and after the 
usual course of law studies was admitted to the bar. After 
the restoration he became secretary to sir Harbottle Grim- 
ston, master of the rolls. When he died is uncertain, as 
he survived the publication of Wood's Athens, from which , 
we have extracted this brief notice of him, but he appears 
to have been living in 1704. He published several law 
treatises, some of which are still in estimation : 1. " Jus 
imaginis apud Anglos, or the Law of England relating to 
the Nobility and tientry," 1671, 1675, 8vo. 2. "Jus Si- 
gilli; or the law of England touching the four principal 
Seals, the great seal, privy seal, exchequer seal, and the 
signet ; also those grand officers to whose custody those 
seals are committed,' 9 1673, 24mo. 3. " Speculum Juris 
Anglicani ; or a view 4>f the Laws of England, as thejf are 
divided into statutes, common-law, and customs," 1673, 
8vo. 4. " Jus criminis, or an abridgment of the laws of 
treason, murther, conspiracies, poisonings, &c." 1675, 
1679, £vo. 5. " Camera Regis, or a short view of Lon- 
don, viz. antiquity, &c. officers, courts, customs, fran- 
chises," &c. 1676, 8vo. 6. " Decus et tutamen ; or a pro- 
spect of the laws of England, framed for die safeguard of 
the king's majesty," 1679, 8vo. 7. " Ars transferendi ; of 
sure guide to the conveyancer," 1697, 8vo. 8. " Non 
compos mentis ; or, the law relating to natural fools, mad 
folks, and lunatic persons," L700, 8vo. t. " Lex Spurio- 
rum ; or, the law relating to bastardy, collected from the 
common, civil, and ecclesiastical laws," 1703, 8 vo. 10. 
" Declaration of the divers preheminences or privileges 
allowed by the laws and customs of England, unto the first* 
born among her majesty's subjects the temporal lords in 
parliament," 1704, fol. Wood adds another .work, "Jura 
Coronas; or, his majesty's royal rights and prerogatives 
asserted against papal usurpations, and all other anti- 
monarchical attempts and practices," 1680, 8vo, l 

BRYDGES (Sir Grey, Lord Chandos), a man of 
abilities, succeeded his father William, fourth lord Chan- 

* Wood's Athena, rod. II.— Cottier's Diet where, father and son seem to be 
confounded, but what Collier tajs ^evidently belongs to the f&ther.^-Wortalfe 

Bibliotheaa. 



B R.Y D6E«, 213 

ttos, in Nov: 1602. He was a friend of the earl of Essex, 
in whose insurrection he was probably involved, for h& 
name appears on the list of prisoners confined in the Fleet 
on that account, Feb. 1 600. He was made a kpight of the 
bath at the creation of Charles duke of York, Jan. 1604* 
and in August 1605 was created M. A. at Oxford, the king 
being present. He was an associate of that active and 
romantic character, lord Herbert of Cherbury, and appears 
to have volunteered his services in the Low Countries, 
when the prince of Orange besieged the city of J uliers. in 
1610, and the Low Country army was assisted by four 
thousand English soldiers, under the command of sir Ed- 
ward Cecil. From the great influence which his hospitality 
and popular manners afterwards obtained in Gloucester- 
shire, and his numerous attendants when he visited the 
court, he was styled king of Cotswould, the tract of coun- 
try on the edge of which his castle of Sudeley was situated. 
On November 18, 1617, he was appointed to receive and 
introduce the Muscovite ambassadors, who had brought 
costly presents from their master to the king. He died 
August 20, 1621. There is no doubt, says sir EgertQU 
Brydges (by whom the preceding notices were drawn to- 
gether) that lord Chandos was a mail of abilities $ts well as 
splendid habits of life, and by no means a literary recluse, 
although be is supposed to have been the author of " Horte 
subsecirs, Observations and Discourses," Lond. 1620, 8vo, 
a work containing a fund of good sense and shrewd remark. 
In sir John Beaumont's poems are some lines on his death, 
highly expressive of an excellent character. * . 

BRYE (Theodore de), an eminent engraver, was born 
In 1528, at Leige, but resided chiefly at Francfort, where 
he carried on a considerable commerce in prints. It does 
not appear to what master he owed his instructions in the 
art, but the works of Sebast Beham were certainly of great 
service to him. He copied many of the plates engraved 
by that artist, and seems to have principally formed his 
taste from them. He worked almost entirely with .the 
graver, and -seldom called in the assistance of the point. 
He acquired a neat, free style of engraving, well adapted 
to smalt subjects in which many figures were to be repre- 
sented, as funeral parades, processions, &c. which he ese- 

\ Park's Royal and Noble Autbors> toI, II.— Censura Literaria* vol, V.-* 
English Poets, yoi VI. p. 40. 



il* BRYE. 

cuted in a charming manner. He also drew very correctly. 
His heads, in gefteral, are spirited and expressive, and the 
other extremities of his figures well-marked. His back- 
grounds, though frequently very slight, are touched with a 
masterly hand. He died, as his sons inform us (in the 
third part of Boissard's collection of portraits), March 27, 
1 598. The two first parts of that collection were engraved 
by De Brye, assisted by his sons, who afterwards con- 
tinued it. 

His great works are, 1. " The plates for the first four 
Volumes of Boissard's * Roman Antiquities'. " 2. Those 
for the illustration of " The Manners and Customs of the 
Virginians,*' in the " Brief true repoTt of the new found 
land of Virginia, published by Thomas Hariot, servant to 
sir Walter Raleigh, &c." Francfort, 1 5U0. 3. The plates 
to the Latin narrative 'of the u Cruelties of the Spaniards 
in America,'* 1598 ; and 4. his greatest work, " Descriptio 
Indiae Ortentalis et Occidentalis," 1598, 5 vols. fol. He 
published also many detached plates, the most remarkable 
ind scarce of which is the "Procession for the funeral of 
sir Philip Sidney. 1 ' This is a long roll, contrived and in- 
Tented by Thomas Lant, gent, servant of that honourable 
knight, and engraven in copper by Derith or Theodore de 
Brie, in the city of London, 1578." Prefixed is the por- 
trait of Mr. Lant, aged thirty-two. It contains thirty 
plates (in the copy we have seen, but Strutt says thirty- 
four) and has usually been considered as the first English 
work by De Brye. There was a copy in Mr. Gough's col- 
lection, which was purchased at his sale in 1810 by sir 
Joseph Banks for thirty-eight guineas. Mr. Strutt describes 
another roll by De Brye, representing the procession of 
the knights of the garter in 1576, which was considered as 
unique. The copy belonged to the late 6ir*John Fenn; 
De Brye's two sons were engravers, but nothing is re- 
corded of them, unless, as already noticed, that they con- 
tinued Boissard's portraits and Roman antiquities. 1 

BRYENNIUS (Nicephorus), was a native of Orestia, 
in Macedonia, and married the princess Anna Comneira, 
daughter of Alexius Comnenus, who raised him to the 
rank of Caesar, but declined announcing him as his suc- 
cessor in prejudice of his own son. After the death of 
Alexius, the empress Irene and her daughter Anna at- 

1 Strait 1 ! Diet— Lord Orford's £ngraver9. 



BRYENNIUS. *}i 

tempted to elevate Bryemnus to the empire, but he re- 
fused to concur iu the plot. Having been sent in LI 37 Va 
besiege Antioch, he fell sick, and returning to Constant 
tinople, died in that city. His history of the reigns of 
Isaac Comnenus and of the three succeeding emperors, 
was comprised in four books, and published with a Latin 
translation, by the Jesuit Poussines, at Paris, in 1661, tQ 
which the annotations of Du CangQ were annexed in 
1670. 1 

BRYENNiyS (Manujs;*.), tbQ last writer on music in 
the Greek language that. has. come tQ our knowledge, 
flourished upder the elder Pal^eologqs, about the ye^r 
1320, audit is probable that he was a descendant of th$ 
house of Brienne, an ancient French family, that weitf 
into Greece during the crusa^^s, at the beginning of the 
thirteenth century. His work is, divided inlp three books* 
all which are confined tp harmonics; the first is a kind of 
commentary on Euclid; and the second and third .Ifctit 
more than explanations qf the doctrines of Ptolemy t M$i-> 
bomius bad promised a Latin translation of this book* bjrt 
dying before it was finished, Dr. Wallis perforated tin? 
task, and it now constitutes a part of the third volume of 
his works, published at Oxford, 1699, 3 vols, fpl, 2 

BIJATtNANCAY (Louis Qasjiiel pu), ch/svalier and 
count of Nan$ay, was born near Livarpt, in Normandy, 
March 2, 1732, and died pn his estate at Nan<jay> Sept. 
13, 1787. He was minister plenipotentiary in most of 
the courts pf Germany, and having a great taste for Jus^ 
tpry, politics, and antiquities, passed much of his time in 
pursuits calculated to gratify it He published the fol- 
lowing works, all of which were well received by hb 
toqntrymen: I. "Tableau de gouvernement de 1'Alle- 
roagpe," 1755, 12mo. 2* " Origines, ou 1'ancien gour 
vernement de la France, de I'Altemagne, et cje 1' Italic,'* 
Hague, 1757, 4 vols, Svo. 3. " L'Histoire ancieppp dea 
peuples de l'Europe," 1772, 12 vols. l£mo, -4. <Mle- 
cherches sur l'Histoire d'Allemagne," 1770* 2 vols. fol« 
5. " Maximes du gouvernement monarchiqi^" 1799, 
4 vols. $vo, and several other dissertations on subjects of 
history and politics, He wa$ aUo autlvor of ft tragedy 
named " Charlemagne," printed, and of another, u Rosa*- 
ipond," which remains in manuscript, 3 

1 Moreri. — Dupin. 

* Burney'B Hist, of Mwic, vol. H.-p-Ries's CydopwdJa. »:DtUt,Uikt, 



216 B U C. 

BUC (George), a learned antiquary, was born in Lin- 
colnshire, in the sixteenth century, and flourished in the 
beginning of the seventeenth. He was descended from 
the ancient family of the Bucs, or Buckes, of West Stan- 
ton, and Herthill, in Yorkshire, and Melford-bal!> in Suf- 
folk. His great-grandfather, sir John Buc, knight, was 
one > of king Richard the Third's favourites, and attended 
that unfortunate prince to the battle of Boswortb, where 
he lost his crown and life. In the first parliament of king 
Henry VII. this sir John Bue was attainted for being one 
of the chief aiders and assistants to the king just now men-* 
tioned, in the battle of Boswortb, and soon after was be- 
headed at Leicester. By this -attainder bis posterity were 
reduced to very great distress ; but, through the interest 
6f Thomas duke of Norfolk, the great patron of the fa- 
mily, they had probably some of their estates restored to 
them, and, among others, that in Lincolnshire, where our 
author was born. In the reign of king James I. he was made 
oftg'of the gentlemen of his majesty's privy-chamber, and 
Knighted. He was also constituted master of the revels, 
Wnose officie was then kept on St. Peter's-hill, in London. 
What he mostly distinguished himself by, was writing 
" The Life and Reign of Richard III. in five books," 
whereiny in opposition to the whole body of English his- 
torians, he endeavours to represent that prince's person 
and* actions in a quite different light from what they have 
been by others; and takes great pains to wipe off the 
bloody stains that have been fixed upon his character. He 
has also written : " The third universitie of England ; or, 
a treatise of the foundations of all the colledges, ancient 
schooles of priviledge, and of houses of learning, and libe- 
rall arts, within and about the most famous citie of London. 
With a briefe report of the sciences, arts, and faculties 
therein professed, studied, and practised/' And a treatise 
of *' The Art of Revels." Mr. Camden gives him the cha- 
racter of " a person of excellent learning," and thankfully* 
acknowledges that he " remarked many things in his his-; 
toriet, and courteously communicated his observations to 
bim/' He has since received very able support, and 
Richard III. has found a powerful advocate in Horace 
Walpole, the late lord Orford, who in his "Historic 
Doubts" has, with much ingenuity, at least, shewn that 
the evidence produced in confirmation of Richard's crimes, 
is fa* from being decisive. But we have now an " historic : 



I 



.BUC. 217 

doubt" to bring forward of more importance to the pre* 
sent article, which we find in a note . on Malone's Shak- 
speare, in the following words : il I take this opportunity 
of correcting an error into which Anthopy Wood has fallen, 
and which has been implicitly adopted in the new edition 
of the Btographia Britannica, and many other books. The 
error I allude to, is, that this sir George Buc, who was 
knighted at Whitehall by king James the. day before his 
coronation, July 23, 160&, was the author *>f the cele- 
brated i ' History of king Richard the Third ;' which was. 
written « above twenty years after his death, by George 
Buck, esq. who was, I suppose, his son. The precise 
time of the father's death, I have not been able to ascer- 
tain, 'there being no will of his in the prerogative office ;. 
but Lbave reason to believe that it happened soon after 
the year 1622. He certainly died before August 1629." 

In answer to thi% Mr. Ritson asserts that there can be 
no doubt \ of the fact, that sir George Buc was the author 
of this History, although published, and said in the title 
to be " composed by George Bucke, esq." in 1646, his 
original MS, (though much injured by fire) being still 
preserved among the Cotton MSS. * Mr. Ritson adds that 
sir George died in 4623. He has also enrolled him 
among his poets, on account of "An Eclog treating of 
crownes, and of garlandes, and to whom of right they 
appertaine. Addressed and consecrated to the king* s ma- 
jestie," 1605, 4to, and of some other verses. 

Sir George Buc's History of Richard is printed in Ken- 
net's Complete History of England, and his " Third Uni- 
versale" first printed in 1615, fol. is appended to Stowe's 
Chronicle, by Howes, 163 l; 1 

BUCER (Martin), an eminent German reformer, was 
born in 1491, at Schelestadt, a town of Alsace. At the 
age of seven he took the religious habit in the order of St. 
Dominic, and with the leave of the prior of his convent, 
went to Heidelberg to learn logic and philosophy. Having 
applied himself afterwards to divinity, he made it his en-, 
deavour to acquire a thorough knowledge of the Greek 
and Hebrew. About this time some of Erasmus's pieces 
came abroad, which he read with great avidity, and 
meeting afterwards with certain tracts of Luther, and com- 

1 B'wg. Brit. — Ritson's Bibliograpbia Poetica. — Archaeologia, vol. I. p. xix. 
tol. IX. p. 134. 



SI* BUCER. 

paring the doctrine there delivered with the sacred scrip- 
tures, he began to entertain doubts concerning several 
things in the popish religion. His uncommon learning 
and his eloquence, which was assisted by a strong and 
musical voice, and his free censure of the vices of the 
times, recommended him to Frederick elector palatine* 
who made him one of hw chaplains. After some con- 
ferences with Luther, at Heidelberg, in 1 52 ! , lie adopted 
nrjost of his religious notions, particularly those with re- 
gard to justification. However, in 1532, he gave the 
preference to the sentiments of ZuingHus, but used bis 
utmost endeavours to re-unite the two parties, who both 
opposed the Romish religion. He is looked upon as one 
of the first authors of the reformation at Strasburg, where 
he taught divinity for twenty years, and was one of the 
ministers of the town. He assisted at many conferences 
concerning religion ; and in 1548, was sent for to Augs- 
burg to sign that agreement betwixt the Protestants and 
Papists, which was called the Interim. His warm oppo* 
sition to this project exposed him to many difficulties and 
harships ; the news of which reaching England, where his 
fame had already arrived, Cranmer, archbishop of Canter* 
bury, gave him an invitation to come over, which he 
readily accepted. In 1549 an handsome apartment waa 
assigned him in the university of Cambridge, and a salary 
to teach theology. King Edward VI. bad the greatest re- 
gard for him ; being told that he was very sensible of the 
cold of this climate, and suffered much for want of a Ger- 
man stove, he sent him an hundred crowns to purchase one. 
He died of a complication of disorders, in 1551, and was 
buried at Cambridge, in St. Mary's church, with great fu-> 
neral pomp. Five years after, in the reign of queen Mary, 
his body was dug up and publicly burnt, and his tomb de- 
molished ; but it was afterwards set up again by order of 
queen Elizabeth. He married a nun, by whom he had 
thirteen children. This woman dying of the plague, he 
married another, and, according to some, upon her death,- 
be took a third wife. His character is thus given by Burnet : 
u Martin Bucer was a very learned, judicious, pious, and 
moderate person. Perhaps he was inferior to none of all 
the reformers for learning ; but for zeal, for true piety, 
and a most tender care of preserving unity among the fo- 
reign churches, Melancthon and he, without any injury 
done to the rest, may be ranked apart by themselves. He 



B U C E R. *1» 

was mock opposed by the Popish party at Cambridge; 
who, though they complied with the law, ami s6 kept tfifeir 
places, yet, either in the way of argument, as if it had 
been for disputed sake, or i-H such point 9 as were not de- 
termined, set themselves much to lessen his esteetft. Nor 
was he furnished naturally with that quickness that is ne- 
cessary for <a disputant, from which they studied to draw 
advantages ; and therefore Peter Martyr wrote to him to 
avoid all public disputes." His writings were in Latin: 
and in German, and so numerous, that it is computed they 
would form eight or nine folio volumes. H19 anxiety to 
reconcile the 'Lutherans and Zuinglians led him to use 
many general' aitd perhaps ambiguous expresskms in his 
writings. He seems to have thought Luther's notion, of 
the sacrament too strong, and that of Zuinglius too weak. 
Verbeiden in Latin, and Lupton in English, have given a 
list of his works, but without size or dates. - 1 

BUCHAN (Elspeth, or Elizabeth)* the foundress of a 
set of modern fanatics, and the daughter of John Simpson', 
the keeper of an inn at Fitmy-Can, the half-way house 
between Banff and Portsoy, in the north of Scotland, was 
born in 173$; and, when she had completed her one~and~ 
twentieth year, was sent to Glasgow, where she entered into 
the service of Mr. Martin, one of the principal proprietors of 
the Delfts work there. In this situation she had remained 
but a short time, when she accepted proposals of marriage 
from Robert Buchan, one of the workmen in the service 
of the same Mr. Martin. Fo^ some years, Robert and 
Elspetb Buchan lived happily together, having many chil- 
dren* whom they educated in 'a manner suitable to their 
station in life. At the time of her marriage, Mrs. Buchan 
was of the episcopal persuasion, but the hdsband being a 
bnrgher-seceder, she adopted his principles, and entered 
into communion with that sect She had always been a con- 
stant reader of the scriptures ; and taking a number of 
passages in a strictly literal sense, she changed her opi- 
nions about the year 177*, became the promulgator of many 
singular doctrines, and soon brought over to her notions 
Mr. Hugh Whyte, a dissenting minister at Irvine, and 

1 Melchior Adam in vitis Theologoruni.— Batesii Vita, p. 25.0.-— Strype** 
Life of sir John Cheke. — Gen. Diet. — Mosheim and Mil tier. — Verheiden's Effi- 
gies. — Lupton's Lives. — Fuller's Abel Redivivus. — Burnet's Hist, of the Refor- 
mation, and StrypeXLives of the Archbishop*, Annate and Memorials. Several 
MSS. respecting him are in the library of C, C. Callege, Cambridge, the British 
Museum, &c. 



320 B.UCHA N. 

connected with Mr. Bell in Glasgow, and Mr. Bain in 
Edinburgh ; and who, upon Mr. Whyte's abdication of bi» 
charge, settled Mr. Robertson in his place at Irvine. She 
went on continually making new converts till April 1790, 
at which time the populace in Irvine rose, assembled 
round Mr. Whyte's house, and broke all the windows; 
when Mrs. Buchan and the whole of her converts, of whom 
the above-mentioned were a part, to the number of forty* 
six persons, left Irvine. The Buchanites (for so they were 
immediately called) went through Mauchlin, Cumnock old 
and new, halted three days, at Kirconnel, passed through 
Sanquhar and Thoruhill, and then settled at a farm-house, 
the out-houses of which they had all along possessed, pay- 
ing for them, as well as for whatever they wanted. 

The gentleman from whom this narrative was received, 
being a merchant in Glasgow, and having occasion to go 
to that country* spent a great part of two days in their 
company in August 1784, conversing with most of them ; 
and from him we shall give what he was able to pick up of 
their particular notions : 

" The Buchanites pay great attention to the bible ; be- 
ing always reading it, or having it in their pocket, or under 
their arm, proclaiming it the best book in the world. They 
read, sing hymns, preach, and converse much about reli- 
gion ; declaring the last day to be at hand, and that no 
one of all their company shall ever die, or be buried in the 
earth ; but soon shall hear the voice of the last trumpet, 
when all the wicked shall be struck dead, and remain so 
for one thousand years : at the same moment they, the Bu- 
chanites, shall undergo an agreeable change, shall be 
caught up to meet the Lord in the air, from whence they 
shall return to this earth, in company with the Lord Jesus, 
with whom as their king they shall possess this earth one 
thousand years, the devil being bound with a chain in the 
interim. At the end of one thousand years, the devil shall 
be loosed, the wicked quickened, both shall assail th£ir 
camp, but be repulsed,, with the devil at their head, while 
they fight valiantly under the Lord Jesus Christ as their 
captain-general. 

" Since the Buchanites adopted their principles, they 
neither marry, nor are given in marriage, nor consider 
themselves bound to any conjugal duties, or mind to in- 
dulge themselves in any carnal enjoyments; but having 
one common purse for their cash, they are all sisters and 



ftuaHAU, 221 

brothers, living a holy life as the angels of God ; and be- 
ginning and continuing in the same holy life, they shall 
live. under the Lord Jesus Christ, their king, after his se- 
cond coming. The Buchanites follow no industry, being 
commanded to take no thought of to-morrow ; but, observ- 
ing how the young ravens are fed, and how the lilies grow, 
th^y. assure themselves God will much more feed and clothe 
them. They, indeed, sometimes work at mason-wright 
and husbandry work to people in their neighbourhood ; but 
then they refuse all wages, or any consideration whatever, 
but declare their whole object in working at all is to mix 
with the world, and inculcate those important truths of 
which they themselves are so much persuaded. 

" Some people call Mrs. Buchan a witch ; which she 
treats with contempt. Others declare she calls herself the 
virgin Mary, .which title she also refuses; declaring she 
has more to boast of, * viz. that the virgin Mary was only 
Christ's mother after the flesh, whereas she assures herself 
to be Christ's daughter after the spirit. 

" Her husband is still in the burgher-secession commu- 
nion ; and when I asked Mrs. Buchan, and others of the 
Buchanites who knew me, if they had any word to any of 
v tbeir. acquaintances in Glasgow? they all declared they 
minded not former things and former connections; but 
that the whole of their attention was devoted to their fel- 
low-saints, the living a holy life, and thereby hastening 
the second coming of their Lord Jesu& Christ." 

Mrs. Buchan died about the beginning of May 1791 ; 
and as her followers were before greatly reduced in num- 
ber, it is probable that nothing more will be heard of them* 1 
BUCHAN (William), a medical writer of great popu- 
larity, descended of a respectable family in Roxburghshire, 
was born at Ancram in the year 1729. Having passed 
through the usual school education, he Was sent to the 
university at Edinburgh. His inclination leading him to 
mathematics, he became so considerable a proficient in 
that branch of science, as to be enabled to give private 
lessons to many of the pupils. Having made choice of me* 
dicine for his profession, he attended the lectures of the 
•everal professors, necessary, to qualify him for practice; 
aud as he was of a studious turn of mind, his progress in 
knowledge may be supposed to have been equal to bis ap^ 
plication. 

* L»*t e4&on of thU DtyfoMrjr. 



283 BUCHA N. 

. After having passed a period of not less tfean nine years 
at the university, he first settled in practice at Sheffield, 
in Yorkshire. He was soon afterwards elected physician to 
a large branch of the Foundling hospital then established at 
Ackwortb. In the course of two years he reduced the an- 
nual number of deaths among the children from one half 
( to one in fifteen ; and by the establishment of due regula- 
tions for the preservation of health, greatly diminished the 
previously hurthensome expense of medical attendance. 
In this situation, he derived from experience that know- 
ledge of the complaints, and of the general treatment of 
children, wbicl* was afterwards published in " The Do- 
mestic Medicine," and in the " Advice to Mothers ;** 
works which, considering their very general Affusion, have 
no doubt tended to ameliorate the treatment of children, 
and consequently to improve the constitutions of the pre* 
sent generation of the inhabitants of this country. Wheri 
that, institution was dissolved, in coosequeoce of parliament 
withdrawing their support from it, Dr Bucfaan returned to 
Edinburgh, where he became a fellow of the royal college 
of physicians, and settled in the practice of his profession, 
relying in some measure on the countenance and support 
of the relations of the lady he married, who was- of 4 re- 
spectable family in that city. On the death of one of the 
professors, the doctor offered himself as a candidate for 
the vacant chair, but did not succeed. 

. About this period, the work entitled " Domestic MedU 
cine" was first published, with die view of laying open the 
science of medicine, and rendering it familiar to the com- 
prehension of mankind in general. In this plan be wats 
encouraged by the late Dr. Gregory, of liberal memory* 
who was of opinion, that to render onedicine generally in- 
telligible was the only means of putting an end to the im- 
postures of quackery. The work was also patronised by, 
aad dedicated to, sir John Pringle, then president of the * 
royal society, and a distant relation of the author. This 
work has. had a degree of success unequalled by any other 
medical book in the English language. It has also been* 
translated into every European language. On its appear- 
ing in Russian, the late empress Catharine transmitted to 
the author a large and elegant medallion of gold, accom- 
panied by a letter expressive of her sentiments of the uti- 
lity of his exertions towards promoting the welfare of man- 
kind in general* Yet successful as this work has proved,, 



f 



buchak m 

Dr. Btaefaan's expectations from it were not great/ and he 
sold the copyright in 1771 for a very inconsiderable sum; 
but the liberal purchaser, the late Mr* Cadell, and his suc- 
cessors, made the doctor a handsome present on revising 
each edition, of which he lured to see nineteen published, 
amounting to upwards of 80,000 copies, it has likewise 
been printed in Ireland and America, and pirated in vari- 
ous shapes in England, but without much diminution either 
of the sale or credit of the authentic work 

. On the death of Fergusson, the celebrated lecturer o*i 
natural philosophy, which took place about the year 1775, 
be bequeathed to the doctor the whole of his apparatus. 
Unwilling that this collection, which at that period was 
perhaps the best this country could boast of, should re- 
main shut up and useless, the doctor, with the assistance 
of his son, who conducted the experimental part, delivered 
several courses of lectures, during three years, at Edin* 
burgh, with great success, the theatre being always crowded 
with auditors. < On removing to London, he disposed of 
this apparatus to Dr. Lettsom. Of natural philosophy, the 
part which particularly attracted the doctor's attention was 
astronomy. Nothiug delighted him more than to point out 
the celestial phenomena on a fine starlight evening to any 
young person who appeared willing to receive information ; 
and the friendship of the late highly respectable astrono- 
mer royal, Dr. Maskelyne, afforded him every facility of ' 
renovating his acquaintance with the planetary bodies, 
whenever so inclined. 

He was possessed of a most retentive memory, which wnt 
particularly exemplified in his recollection of the Bible* 
which in his more early years he had been much** accus- 
tomed to peruse with attention. On an appeal being made 
to him concerning amy particular text of scripture, he 
hardly ever erred in giving the very words of which it con- 
listed,, and pointing out the precise chapter and verse 
where it was to be found. The same faculty furnished him 
with an infinite fond of amusing anecdotes, which he used 
«q rel&te in a good-humoured and entertaining manner.* 
This talent rendered his company much courted by private * 
cifdes, and interfered with that assiduous attention to- 
business requisite to .ensure success to a medical praeti- 
tioner in the metropolis; which his popular reputation aw* 
pleasing manners were in other respects well calculated to 
obtain. He latterly confined his practice to giving advice ' 



SM BUCHAN. 

at home, and in that way did more business than most 
people acquainted with his habits supposed. 

The doctor had a prepossessing exterior, and was of a 
mild, humane, and benevolent disposition, which not only, 
embraced all the human race, but was extended to the 
whole of the animal creation. He was blessed with an ex- 
cellent constitution, never having experienced sickness till 
within a year of his decease, when he began sensibly to 
decline. The immediate cause of his death, of the ap-» 
proach of which he was sensible, and which he met with 
the same gentleness and equanimity which characterized 
every action of his life, appeared to be an accumulation of 
water in the chest. He died Feb. 2*, 1805, in the. se- 
venty- sixth year of his age, and is buried in the cloisters 
of Westminster- abbey. Two children survive him, a daugh* 
ter and a son, the latter of whom, a man of profound, and 
general learning, has been for some years settled in prac- 
tice as a physician in Percy-street, London. 

Besides the works above-mentioned, Dr. Buchan pub- 
lished a "Treatise on the Venereal Disease," 1796, which 
has passed through several editions ; " Cautions concern- 
ing Cold-bathing, and drinking Mineral-waters,*' 178.6,*- 
8yo; and " A Letter to the Patentee, concerning the me- 
dical properties of Fleecy Hosiery," 1700, 8vo«* 

BUCHANAN (George), a Scottish historian, and La- 
tin poet, of great eminence, and uncommon abilities and 
learning, was descended from an ancient family, and was 
born at Killairn, in the shire of Lenox, in Scotland, in the 
month of February 1506. His father died of the stone in 
the prime of life, whilst his grandfather was, yet living ; by 
whose extravagance . the family, which before was. but in 
low circumstances, was now nearly reduced to the extre- 
mity of want. He had, however, the happiness of a very 
prudent mother, Agnes, the daughter of James Heriot of 
Trabrown, who, though she was left a widow with five sons, 
and three daughters, brought them all up. in a decent man*: * 
aer, by judicious management.. She had a brother, Mr; 
James Heriot, who, observing the marks- of genius which, 
young George Buchanan discovered when at school, sepi « 
him to Paris in 1520 for his education. There he closely 
applied himself to his studies, and particularly cultivated 
hi? poetical talents: but before he had been there "quite* 

» Gent. Mag. 1805.— Memoirs of William Smellie, F. R. S. and F. A.S.S. 
lrhicfc contain a correspondence with Pr« Bucbaa, &<v 



BUCHANAN. 325 

tiro years, the death of his uncle, and his, own ill state of 
health, and want of money,- obliged him to return home. 
Having arrived in his native country, he spent almost. a 
year in endeavouring to re-establish his health; and in 
152 3^ in order to acquire some knowledge of military af- 
fairs, he made a campaign with the French .auxiliaries, 
who* came over into Scotland with John duke of Albany. 
But in this new course of life he encountered so many 
hardships,- that be was confined to bis bed by sickness all 
the ensuing winter. He had probably much more propen- 
sity to his books, than to the sword ; for early in the fol- 
lowing spring he went to St. Andrews, and attended the 
lectures on logic, or rather, as he says, on sophistry, which 
were read in that university by John Major, or Many a 
professor in St. Saviour's college, and assessor to the dean 
of Arts, whom he soon after accompanied to Paris. After 
struggling for about two years with indigence and ill for- 
tune, he was admitted, in 1526, being then not more than 
twenty years of age, in the college of St. Barbe,. where he^ 
took the degree of B. A. in 1527, and M. A. in 1528, and 
in 1 529 was chosen procurator nationis, and began then to 
teach grammar, which he continued for about three years. 
But Gilbert Kennedy,: earl of Cassils, a young Scottish 
nobleman, being then in France, and happening to fall 
into th£ company of Buchanan, was so delighted with his 
wit, and the agreeableness of his manners, that he pre- 
vailed upon him to continue with him five years. Accord* 
ing to Mackenzie, he acted as a kind of tutor to this young 
nobleman ; and, during -his stay with him, translated Lin- 
acre's Rudiments of grammar out of English into Latin ; 
wtech Was printed sit Paris, by Robert Stephens, in"1533, 
and dedicated to the earl of Cassils.' He returned to Scot- 
land with that nobleman, whose death happened about two 
ydfcrs after ; and Buchanan had then an inclination to re* 
tuto-to France : but James V. king of Scotland* prevented 
hinty by appointing him preceptor to his .natural son, 
James,' afterwards the abbot of Kelso, .who died in 1548, 
apd net, as some say, the earl of Murray, regent of that 
kingdom. About this time, he wrote a satirical poem 
.against the • Franciscan friars, entitled, " Somnium ;" 
which irritated them to exclaiqi against him as a heretic. 
Their Glamours, however, only increased the dislike which 
he had conceived against diem, on account of .their disor- 
derly and licentiqu* Jiyes ; and inclined bim the more, 
Vol* VII. Q 



226 BUCHANAN. 

•wards Lutheranism, to which he seems to have had before 
no inconsiderable propensity. "About the year 1538, the 
king haying discovered a conspiracy against himself, in 
which he suspected that some of the Franciscans were con- 

- ceroed, commanded Buchanan to write a poem against 
that order. But he had probably already experienced the 

. inconveniency of exasperating so formidable a body ; for 
he only wrote a few verses which were susceptible of a 
double interpretation, and be pleased neither party. The 
king was dissatisfied, that the satire was not more poig- 
nant ; and the friars considered it as a heinous offence, to 
mention them in any way that was not honourable. But 
the king gave Buchanan a second command, to write 
against them with more severity ; which he accordingly 
did in the poem, entitled, " Franciscanus ;" by which he 
. pleased the king, and rendered the friars his irreconcile- 

- able enemies. He soon found, that the animosity of these 

- ecclesiastics was of a more durable nature than royal fa- 
vour : for the king had the meanness to suffer him to feeL 
the weight of their resentment, though it had been chiefly 

• excited by obedience to his commands. It was not the 
Franciscans only, but the clergy in general, who were in- 
censed against Buchanan : they appear to have made a 
common cause of it, and they left no stone unturned till 
they had prevailed with the king that he should be tried 
for heresy. He was accordingly imprisoned at the begin- 
ning of 1539, but found means to make his escape, as be 
gays himself, out of his chamber- window, while his guards 
were asleep. He fled into England, where he found king 
Henry the Eighth persecuting both protestants and papists. 
Not thinking that kingdom, therefore, a place of safety, 
he again went over into France, to which he was the more 
inclined because he had there some literary friends, 2nd 

•was pleased with the politeness of French manners. But 
when he came to Paris, he had the mortification to find 

« there cardinal Beaton, who was his great enemy, and who 
appeared there as ambassador from Scotland. Expecting, 
therefore, to receive some ill offices from him, if he con- 
tinued at Paris, he withdrew himself privately to Bour- 
deaux, at the invitation of Andrew Govea, a learned Por- 
tuguese, who was principal of a new college in that city. 

; Buchanan taught in the public school* there three years ; in 

- which time he composed two tragedies, the one entitled, 
"Baptistes, sive CaluBmia," and the other "Jephthcfe, 



.BUCHANAN. S27 

Vbtum*;" and also translated the Medea and Alcestii 
of Euripides. These were all afterwards published; but 
they were originally written in compliance with the rules 
of the school, which every year required some new dra- 
matic exhibition ; and his view in choosing these subjects 
was, to draw off the youth of France as much as possible 
from the allegories, which were then greatly in vogue, to 
a just imitation of the ancients ; in which he succeeded be- 
yond his hopes. During his residence at Bourdeaux, the 
emperor Charles V. passed through that city ; upon which 
Buchanan presented his imperial majesty with an elegant 
Latin poem, in which the emperor was highly compli- 
mented, and at which he expressed great satisfaction. But 
the animosity of cardinal Beaton still pursued our poet : 
•for that haughty prelate wrote letters to the archbishop of 
Bourdeaux, in which be informed him, that Buchanan had 
fled his country for heresy; that he had lampooned the 
church in most virulent satires ; and that if he would put 
him to the trial, he would find him a most pestilentioua 
heretic. Fortunately for Buchanan, these letters fell into 
Che hands of some of his friends, who found means to pre- 
vent their effects : and the state of public affairs in Scot- 
land, in consequence of the death of king James V. gave 
the cardinal so much employment, as to prevent any far- 
ther prosecution of his rancour against Buchanan. 

In 1543, he quitted Bourdeaux, on account of the pes- 
tilence being there ; and about this time seems, to have had 
some share in the education of Michael de Montaigne, th* 
celebrated anthor of the Essays. In 1544, he went to 
Paris, where he taught the second class of the college of 
Bourbon, as Tumebus did the first, and Muretus the third; 
«nd it appears that in some part of this year he was afflicted 
with the gou£ In 1547, he went into Portugal with hj| 
friend Andrew Govea, who had received orders from the 
king his master to return home, and bring with him a, cer- 
tain number of learned men, qualified to teach the Aristo-% 
telian philosophy, and polite literature, in the university 

* A translation of the Baptistes was, 1578, when it was printed at London* 

published, in 1641* which Mr. Peck His translation of the Medea of Euri- 

sapposed to have been made by Mil- pides was acted at Bourdeaux in 1549, 

ton, and therefore re-printed it with his His Jephthes was published at Paris in 

New Memoirs of the Life and Poetical 1554, and his translation of the Alces* 

Works of Milton, published in 4to, in tis of Euripides at the same place i* 

1740. The Baptistes, though the first 155$. % 
written, was not published till the year 

a 2 



228 



BUCHANAN. 



which he had lately established at Coimbra. Re says, tfiat 
he the more readily agreed to go to Portugal, because that 
" all Europe besides was either actually engaged in foreign 
or domestic wars, or upon the point of being so ; and that 
this corner of the world appeared to him the most likely to 
be free from tumults and disturbances. Besides which, 
his companions in that journey were such, that they seemed 
.rather his familiar friends than strangers, or foreigners; 
for with most of them he had been upon terms of much in- 
timacy for some years; and they were men well known to 
.the world by their learned works *•** 

During the life of Govea, who was a great favourite of 
his Portuguese majesty, matters went on extremely well 
with Buchanan in Portugal 5 but after the death of Govea, 
which happened in 1548, a variety of ill treatment was 
practised against the learned men who followed him, arid 
particularly against Buchanan. He was accused of being 
author of the poem against the Franciscans, of having 
eaten flesh in time of Lent, and of having said that, with 
respect to the Eucharist, St. Augustine was more favourable 
to the doctrine of the reformers, than to that of the church 
of Rome. Besides these enormities, it was also deposed 
•against him by certain witnesses, that they had heard from 
divers reputable persons, that Buchanan was not orthodox 
as to the Romish faith and religion. These were sufficient 
reasons in that country for putting any man into the in- 
quisition ; and accordingly, Buchanan was confined there 
about a year and a half. He was afterwards removed to a 
more agreeable prison, being confined in a monastery till 
he should be better instructed in the principles of the 
Romish church. He says of the monks. under whose care 
he was placed, that " they were altogether ignorant of re* 
£jgion, but were otherwise, men neither bad in their mo- 
rals, nor rude in their behaviour." It was during his re- 
sidence in this monaster}*, that he began to translate the^ 



* Mackenzie says, that "before Bu- 
chanan undertook this voyage for Por- 
tugal, he caused his friend Andrew 
Govea to inform the king of Portugal, 
.by a letter, of the whole affair between 
him and the Franciscans in Scotland, 
and that the satire be had writ against 
them, was not, as his enemies gave 
*ut, to defame the catholics, but wrote 
in obedience to the king bis .master¥ 



command, whom the Franciscans had 
offended. The king of Portugal being 
satisfied with this apology, Govea, Ni- 
cholas Gruchiut, GulteUou* Garaoiia- 
tis, Jacobus Tssviuy, fiettus Venetua* 
Mr. Buchanan, and hia brother Mr. 
Patrick Buchanan, embarked for Porta* 
gal, where they safaly arrived ittJba 
•year 1547t» 



* * 



B U CHANAN, 



22fr 



Psalms of David* into Latin verse; and which he exe- 
cuted, sajs Mackenzie, " with such inimitable sweetness 
and elegancy, that this version of the Psalms will be 
esteemed and admired as long as the world endures, or 
men have any relish for poetry.' 1 Having obtained his 
liberty in 155 1, be desired a passport of the king, in order 
to return to France ; but his majesty endeavoured to re- 
tain him in his service, and assigned him a small pension 
till he should procure him an employment. But these 
uncertain hopes did not detain him long in Portugal ; and 
indeed, it was not to be supposed that the treatment which 
be had received there, could give a man of Buchanan's 
temper any great attachment to the place. He readily 
embraced an opportunity which offered of embarking for 
England, where, however, he made no long stay, though 
some advantageous offers were made him. Edward VI. 
was then upon the throne of England, but Buchanan, ap- 
prehending the affairs of that kingdom to be in a very 
unsettled state, went over into France at the beginning of 

. the year 1553. It seems to have been about this time that 
he wrote some of those satirical pieces against the monks, 

: which are found in his " Fratres Fraterrimi." He was also 
probably now employed at Paris in teaching the belles- 

,lettres; but though be seems to have been fond of France, 



* Mr. Granger observes, that " the 
most applauded of Buchanan's poetical 
,- works is his translation of the Psalms, 
particularly of the 104th." — « This 
psalm has been translated into Latin 
by nine Scottish poets. Eight of these 
. translations were printed at Edinburgh, 
1699, 12mo, together with the Poetic 

• Duel of Dr. George Eglisem with Bu- 
chanan. The former accused that 
great poet of bad Latin, and bad 
poetry, in his version of this psalm, 
and made no scruple of preferring his 
own. translation of it to Buchanan's." 
Eglisem made an appeal to the uni- 
versity of Paris, concerning the justice 

u of his own criticisms on Buchanan. 

v Tn the second volume of the " Poeta- 
rum Scotorum Musso Sacrse," pub- 
lished at Edinburgh, m 1139, is re- 

• printed the piece mentioned by Mr. 
Granger, .under the following title : 
" Poeticum Duelhims sen Georgii 

' Eglisemmii cum, Georgio Bucbanano 
pro dignitate Paraphrases Psalmi civ. 
certamen. Cui adnectitur Qui. Bar- 
elaii, amosuiorum artium fc medicine 



doctoris, de eodem certamine judi- 
cium ; nee non consilium collegii me- 
dici Parisiensis de ejusdem Eglisemmii 
mania, quod carmine exhibuit A re- 
turns Jonstenus, M . D." The vanity 
and absurdity of Eglisem are ridiculed, 
in this with much humour. Barclay 
says, that " it would be more difficult 
to find in Buchanan's translation any 
verses that are not good, than it would 
be to find any in EgliseaVs that are not 
bad." In the Poeticum Duellum the 
versions of the 104th psalm by Bu- 
chanan and Eglisem are printed oppo- 
site to each other ; and at the end, of 
the second volume of the Poetarum 
Scotorum, besides the pieces con- 
cerning Buchanan and Eglisem, are 
six other versions of the same psalm, 
by Scottish poets, the last of whom it 
Dr. Archibald Pitcairne. These are 
the versions mentioned by Mr. Granger, 
but he enumerates one more than there 
are, there being only eight in the 
whole, including those of Buchanan 
and Eglisem. 



ISO BUCHANAN. 



\ 



yet he sometimes expresses his dissatisfaction lit his treat- 
merit and situation there. The subject of one of his elegies 
is the miserable condition of those who were employed in, 
teaching literature at Paris. His income was, perhaps, 
small ; and he seems to have bad no great propensity to 
ceconomy ; but this is a disposition too common among the 
votaries of the Muses, to afford any peculiar reproach 
against Buchanan. In 1555, the marshal de BrisSac, to 
whom he had dedicated his " Jephthes," sent for Buchanan 
into Piedmont, where he then commanded, and made him 
preceptor to Timoleon de Coss6, his son ; and he spent 
five years in this station, partly in Italy, and partly in 
France. This employment probably afforded him much 
leisure ; for he now applied himself closely to the study of 
the sacred writings, in order to enable him to form the 
more accurate judgment concerning the subjects in con- 
troversy between the Protestants and Papists. It was also 
during this period that he composed his ode upon the 
taking of Calais by the duke of Guise, his- epithalamium 
upon the marriage of Mary queen of Scots to the Dauphin 
of France, and part of his poem upon the Sphere. 

In the year 1561, be returned to Scotland, and finding 
the reformation in a manner established there, he openly 
renounced the Romish religion, and declared himself a 
Protestant, but attended the court of queen Mary, and 
even superintended her studies.. In 1563 the parliament 
appointed him, with others, to inspect the revenues of the 
universities, and to report a model of instruction. He 
was also appointed by the assembly of the church, to re- 
vise the " Book of Discipline." In 1564 the queen gave 
him a pension of five hundred pounds Scotch, which has 
been, not very reasonably, made the foundation of a charge 
of ingratitude against him, because he afterwards could not 
dafend the queen's conduct with respect to the mur- 
der of her husband, and her subsequent marriage with 
Bothwell. About 1566 he was made principal of St Leo- 
nard's college, in the university of St. Andrew's, where he 
taught philosophy for some time ; and he employed his 
leisure hours in collecting all his poems, such of them ex- 
cepted as were in the hands of his friends, and of which 
he had no copies. In 1567, on account of his uncommon 
abilities and learning, he was appointed moderator of the 
general assembly of the. church of Scotland. He joined 
himself to the party that acted against queen Mary, and 



BUCHANAN. 



29-J 



appears to have been particularly connected with the earl 
of Murray, who had been educated by him, and for whom 
he had a great regard. He attended that nobleman to the 
conference at York, and afterwards at Hampton -court, 
being nominated one of the assistants to,tbe commissioner* 
who were sent to England against queen Mary. He had 
been previously appointed, in an assembly of the Scottish 
nobility, preceptor to the young king James VI.* 

During his residence in England, he wrote some enco* 
mi&stic verses in honour of queen Elizabeth, and several 
English ladies of rank, from whom he received present. 
He appears to have been very ready to receive favours of 
that kind ; and, like Erasmus, not to have been at. all 
backward in making his wants known, or taking proper 
measures to procure occasional benefactions from the great. 
In 1571 he published his *•' Detectio Mariae Reginae,'Vin 
which he very severely arraigned the conduct and cha- 
racter of queen Mary, and expressly charged /her with, 
being concerned in the murder of her husband lord 
Darnly. At the beginning of 1570, his pupil, the earl 
of Murray, regent of Scotland, was assassinated, which, 
Mackenzie says, " was a heavy stroke to him, for he loved 
him as his own life." He continued, however, to be in 
favour with some of those who were invested with power 
in Scotland ; for, after the death of the earl of Murray, he 
was appointed one of the lords of the council, and lord 
privy seal. It appears also that he had a pension of one 
hundred pounds a year, settled on him by queen Eliza- 
beth. In 1579 he published his famous treatise " De Jure 
Regni apud Scotos ;" which he dedicated to king James. 
In 1582 he published at- Edinburgh, his " History <rf Scot- 
land," in twenty books, on which he had chiefly em- 
ployed the last twelve or thirteen years of his life. He 



* It appears from a story related 
by Mackenzie, that Buchanan bad not 
the most profound reverence for the 
Tank of his royal pupil. The young 
king being one day at play with his 
fellow pupil, the master of Erskine, the 
earl of Mar's eldest son, Buchanan, 
who was reading, desired them to make 
less noise. Finding that they disre- 
garded his admonition, he told bis ma- 
jesty, that if he did not hold his tongue, 
he would certainly whip him. The 
king replied, he should be glad' to see 
who would bell the cat, alluding to tha 



fable. Upon this, Buchanan threw 
his book from him in a passion, and 
gave his majesty a severe whipping. 
The old countess of Mar, who was in 
an adjoining apartment, hearing .-the 
king ory, ran to him, and inquired 
what was tbe matter. He told her, 
that the master, for so Buchanan was 
called, had whipped him. v She imme- 
diately asked Buchauan " howhedurtt 
put his band on the Lord's anointed ?" 
His reply was, *' Madam, I have whip- 
ped his a—, you may kits it if yoa 
plqase." «<»? 



338 BUCHANA' N. 

died at Edinburgh the same year, on the 5th of December 
in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Towards the close of 
his life, he had sometimes resided at Stirling. It is said, 
that when he was upon his death-bed, he was informed 
that the king was highly incensed against him for writing 
his book " De Jure Regni," and his " History of Scot- 
land ;" to which he replied, that " he was not much con- 
cerned about that ; for he was shortly going to a place 
where there were few kings." We are also told, that when 
he was dying, he called for his servant, whose name -was 
Young, and asked him how* much money he had of his ; 
and finding that it was not sufficient to defray the expences 
6f bis bUrial, he commanded him to distribute it amongst 
the poor. His servant thereupon asked him : • " Who then 
would be at the charge of burying him ?" Buchanan re- 
plied, " That he was very indifferent about that ; for. if 
he were once dead, if they would not bury him, they 
might let him lie where he was, or throw his corpse where 
they pleased." Accordingly, he was buried at the ex- 
pence of the city of Edinburgh. Archbishop Spotswood 
says of Buchanan, that " in his old age he applied himself 
to write the /Scots History, which he renewed with such* 
judgment and eloquence, as no country can shew a better: 
only in this he is justly blamed, that he sided with the 
factions of the time, and to justify the proceedings of the 
noblemen against the queen, he went so far in depressing 
the royal authority of princes, and allowing their coutroul- 
ment by subjects ; his bitterness also in writing of the 
queen, and of the times, all wise men have disliked ; but 
otherwise no man bath merited better of his country for 
learning, nor thereby did bring to it more glory. He was 
buried in the common burial-place, though worthy to have 
been laid in marble, and to have bad some statue erected 
to his memory ; but such pompous monuments in his life 
he was wont to scorn and despise,, esteeming it a greater 
credit, as it was said of the Roman Cato, to have it asked, 
Why doth be lack a statue ? than to have had one, though 
never so glorious, erected.*' - 

Mr. Teissier says, that " it cannot be denied but Bu- 
chanan was a man of admirable eloquence, of rare prudence, 
and of an exquisite judgment; he has written the History 
of Scotland with such elegancy and politeness, that he 
surpasses all the writers of his 9ge$ and he has even equalled 
the ancients themselves, without excepting either Sallust 



B U C H ANAR 23S 

or Titus Livius. But be is accused by some of being an 
unfaithful historian, and to have shewn in his history at* 
extreme aversion against queen Mary Stuart ; but his 
master-piece is his Paraphrase upon the Psalms, in whichf 
he outdid the most famous poets amongst the French and 
Italians." 

Mr. James Crawford, in his " History of the House of 
Este," says, " Buchanan not only excelled ail that went 
before him in his own country, but scarce had his equal 
m that learned age in which he lived. He spent the first 
flame and rage of his fancy in poetry, in which he did 
imitate Virgil in heroics, Ovid in elegiacs, Lucretius in 
philosophy, Seneca in tragedies, Martial in epigrams, Ho- 
lace and Juvenal in satires. Hecopied after these great mas- 
ters so perfectly, that nothing ever approached nearer the 
original : and his immortal Paraphrase on the Psalms doth 
shew, that neither the constraint of a limited matter, the 
darkness of expression, nor the frequent return of the 
same, or the like phrases, could confine or exhaust that 
vast genius. At last, in his old age, when his thoughts 
were purified by long reflection and business, and a true 
judgment came in the rpom of one of the richest fancies 
that ever was, he wrote our History with such beauty of 
style, easiness of expression, and exactness in all it$ parts, 
that no service or honour could have been done the nation 
like it, had he ended so noble a work as he begun, and 
carried it on till James the Fifth's death. But being un- 
happily engaged in a faction, and resentment working vio- 
lently upon him, he suffered himself to be so strangely 
biassed, that in the relations he gives of many of the tran- 
sactions of his own time, he may rather pass for a satirist 
than an historian." 

Burnet says, that " in the writings of Buchanan there 
appears, not only all the beauty and graces of the Latin : 
tongue, but a vigour of mind, and quickness of thought, 
far. beyond Bembo, or the other Italians, who at that time 
affected to revive the purity of the Roman style. It was 
but a feeble imitation of Tully in them ; but his style is so 
natural and nervous, and his reflections on things are so 
solid (besides his immortal poems, in which he shews how 
well be could imitate all the Roman poets, in their several: . 
ways of writing, that he who compares them will be often 
tempted to prefer the copy to the original), that he is 



tU BUC HAN A N,' 

justly reckoned the greatest and best of our modern 
authors." 

The celebrated Thuanus observes, that " Buchanan* 
being old, began to write the history of his own country; 
and although, according to the genius of his nation, he 
sometimes inveighs against crowned heads with severity, 
yet that work is written with so much purity, spirit, and 
judgment, that it does not appear to be the production of 
a man who had passed all his days in the dust of a school, 
but of one who had been all his life-time conversant in 
the most important affairs of state. Such was the great- 
ness of his mind, and the felicity of his genius, that the 
meanness of his condition and fortune has not hindered 
Buchanan from forming just sentiments of things of the 
greatest moment, or from writing concerning them with a 
great deal of judgment." 

Dr. Robertson, speaking of Buchanan's History of Scot- 
land, says, that " if his accuracy and impartiality had been, 
in any degree, equal to the elegance of his taste, and to 
the purity and vigour of his style, his history might be 
placed on a level with the most admired compositions of 
the ancients. But, instead of rejecting the improbable 
tales of chronicle writers, he was at the utmost pains to 
adorn them ; and hath clothed with all the beauties, and 
graces of fiction, those legends which formerly had only 
its wildness and extravagance." In another place, the 
same celebrated historian observes, that " the happy genius 
of Buchanan, equally formed to excel in prose and in 
vjerse, more various, more original, and more elegant, than 
that of almost any other modern who writes in Latin, re- 
flects, with regard to this particular, the greatest lustre on 
his country" 

The genius and erudition of Buchanan have procured 
him, as a writer, the applause even of his enemies : but, 
as a man, he has-been the subject of the most virulent in- 
vectives. Far from confining themselves to truth, they 
have not even kept within the bounds of probability ; and 
some of the calumnies which have been published against 
him, related by Bayle, are calculated only to excite our 
risibility. The learned John Le Clerc has very ably shewn, 
that there is much reason to conclude, that many of the 
severe censures which have been thrown out against Bu- 
chanan, were the. result of ignorance, of prejudice, and of 



BUCH A'NAN, »*•■ 

party animosity. That be was himself influenced by some! 
degree of partiality to the party with which he was con- 
nected, that he was sometimes deceived by the reports of 
others, and that in the earlier part of his History, his zeal 
for the ^honour of his country has led him into some nrisre-* 
presentations* may be admitted : but we do not apprehend 
that he wilfully and intentionally violated the truth, or that 
there is any just ground for questioning his integrity. Le 
Clerc observes, that- as to the share which Buchanan had 
in public affairs, it appears even from the Memoirs of sir 
James Melvil, who was of the opposite p&rty, that " he 
distinguished himself by his probity, and by his modera- 
tion." The prejudices of many writers against him have 
been very great: he had satirized the priests, and many 
of them therefore were his most inveterate enemies ; he 
was generally odious to the bigotted advocates for the Ro- 
mish church, and to the partisans of Mary ; and his free 
and manly spirit rendered him extremely disagreeable to 
court flatterers and parasites, and the defenders of tyranny. 
His dialogue " De Jure Regni," which certainly contains 
some of the best and most rational principles of govern* 
m'ent, whatever may be thought of some particular senti- 
ments, and which: displays uncommon acuteness and ex- 
tent of knowledge, has been one source of the illiberal 
abuse that has been thrown out against him. But it is a 
performance that really does him great honour ; and the 
rather, because it was calculated to enforce sound maxims 
of civil policy, in an age in which they were generally 
little understood. Some farther testimonies of authors 
concerning him may be found in our references. 

Dr. Lettice concludes a well-written life of him by re- 
marking, that Buchanan, with regard to his person, is said 
to have been slovenly, inattentive to dress, and almost to 
have bordered upon rusticity in his manners and appear- 
ance. The character of his countenance was manly but 
austere, and the portraits remaining of him bear testimony 
to this observation. But he was highly polished in his 
language and style of conversation, which was generally 
much seasoned with wit and humour. On every subject 
he possessed a peculiar facility of illustration by lively 
anecdotes and short moral examples ; and when his know- 
ledge and recollection failed in suggesting these, his in- 
vention immediately supplied him. He has- been too justly 
reproached with instances of revenge, and forgetfuiness of 



5$6 BUCHANA N. 

obligations. These seem not, however, to have been cha- 
racteristic qualities, but occasional failures of his nobler 
nature, and arising from too violent an attachment t& 
party, and an affection too partial towards individuals To 
the. same source, perhaps, may be traced that easiness of 
belief to which he is found too frequently to resign his bet- 
ter judgment. His freedom from anxieties relative to for** 
iune, and indifference to outward and accidental circum- 
stances, gained him, with some,, the reputation of a Stoie 
philosopher ; but as a state of mind undisturbed by the 
vicissitudes of life, and a disposition to leave the morrow 
to take care of itself, are enjoined by one far better than 
Zeno, let us not forget that Buchanan is affirmed moreover 
to have been religious and devout, nor -unjustly place so 
illustrious a figure in the niche of an Athenian portico, 
which claims no inferior station in the Christian temple. ' 

BUCHOLTZER,orBUCHOLCER (Abraham), usual- 
ly ranked among the German reformers, was born §ept» 
28, 1529, at Schonaw near Wittemberg, at which univer- 
sity be was educated, and where he contracted an acquain- 
tance with Melancthon, and while he was studying the 
scriptures in their original languages, imbibed the prin- 
ciples of the reformation. In 1555 he went into Silesia, 
where the senate of Grunbergue invited him to superin- 
tend a school newly erected in that city. This offer, by 
Melancthon' s advice, he accepted in the following year, 
and raised the school to a very high degree of reputation. 
Melancthon had so good an opinion of him as to declare 
that no young man could be supposed unfit for a univer- 
sity, who had been educated under Bucholtzer. Nor was 
he less celebrated as a preacher ; and upon account of his 
services in promoting the reformation, enjoyed the favour 
and patronage of Catherine, widow of Henry duke of 
Brunswick, Ernest prince of Anhalt, and other persons of 
rank. He died at Freistad in Silesia, Oct 14, 1584. He 
composed a chronology from the beginning of the world to 
the year 15SO, under the title of " Isagoge chronological 
which was often reprinted. 1 

* Btog. Brit.— Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman passim, bat especially from p» 
&10.— Hume, Robertson, and Stuart's Histories, as far as respect queen Mary. 
«— Laing's History of Scotland, and an elaborate review of it in the British Critic. 
—Mackenzie's Scotch writers, vol. III. &c &c. , . 

» Melchior Adam in witis Theolog.— Frehcri Theatrum. — Fuller's Abel Redi- 
virus.— Moreri.— Vossios <te SctaiL Mathemau— Blount's Centura.— $axfi 
Ottomans* 



BOOK. "" Stif 

. BUCK (Samuel) was an ingenious English engraver, 
who, agisted by his brother Nathaniel, drew and engraved 
a large number of plates of various sizes, consisting of 
views of churches, monasteries, abbies, castles, and other 
ruins.' They executed also views of the principal cities 

. and tojrns in England and Wales, and among them a very 
large one of the cities of London and Westminster. They 
are all done in the same style, the back-grounds being 
slightly etched, and the buildings finished with the graver* 
in a stiff manner. Their drawings, especially those of the 
ruins, &c. appear to have been too hastily made, and are 
frequently inaccurate ; but, in many instances, they are 
the only views we have of the places represented ; and in 
lome, the only views we can have, as several of the ruins 
engraved by them, have since that time been totally de- 
stroyed. Their prints amount in the whole to about 500,: 
and still bear a great price. Samuel Buck died at hid 
apartments in the Temple, in the eighty-fifth year of hi* 
age, August Y779. A few months before his death a libe- 
ral subscription was raised for his support. His brother 
bad been dead many years before. 1 
. ■ BUCKERIDGE (John), an eminent English prelate, 
jpras the son of William Buckeridge, by Elizabeth his wife, 
daughter of Thomas Keblewhy te of Basilden in Berks, son 
of John Keblewhy te, unde to sir Thomas White, founder 
of St. John's college, Oxford. He was educated in Mer- 
chant Taylors 9 school, and thence sent to St. John's col- 
lege, O&on, in 1578, where he was chosen fellow, and pro- 
ceeded, through other degrees, to D. D. in the latter end 
of 1596. After leaving the university, he became chap- 
lain to Robert earl of Essex, and was rector of North Fam- 
bridge in Essex^and of North Kilworth in Leicestershire, and 

'was afterwards one of archbishop Whitgift's chaplains, and 
B»de prebendary of Hereford, and of Rochester. In 1604, 
he was preferred to the archdeaconry of Northampton ; 
$nd the same year, Nov. 5, was presented by king James 
to the vicarage of St. Giles's, * Cripplegate, in which he 
succeeded Dr. Andrews, then made bishop of Chichester. 
About the same time he was. chaplain to the king; was 
elected president of St. John's college, 1605, and installed 

canon of Windsor, April 15,. 1606. His eminent abilities 
in the pulpit were greatly esteemed at court ; insomuch 

l Strutt.-^Qcnt Mag. 1770, p. S7, 424,— Nichols'* Bowyer. 

- v ■ ' ~ • 



% SS BUCKERIDGE, 

that he was chosen to be cine of the four (Dr. Andrews, 
bishop of Chichester, Dr. Barlow of Rochester, and Dr. 
John King, dean of, Christ-church, Oxford, being the 
other three) who were appointed to preach before the king 
at Hampton-court in September 1606, in order to bring 
the two Melvins and other presbyterians of Scotland to a # 
right understanding of the church of England. He took 
his text out of Romans xiiu 1. and managed the discourse 
(as archbishop Spotswood, who was present, relates), both 
soundly and learnedly, to the satisfaction of all the hearers, 
only it grieved the Scotch ministers to hear the. pope and 
presbytery so often equalled in their opposition to sove- 
reign princes. * 

In the year 16 1 1 he was promoted to the see of Roches- 
ter, to which he was consecrated June 9. Afterwards, by 
the interest of his sometime pupil, Dr. Laud, then bishop 
of Bath and Wells, he was translated to Ely in 1628; 
where, having sat a little more than three years, he died 
May 23, 1631, and on the 31st was buried in the parish 
church of Bromley in Kent, without any memorial, al- 
though he appears to have been a very pious, learned, and 
worthy bishop, and had been a benefactor to the parish. 
His works are " De Potestate Pap® in rebus temporalibus, 
sive in regibus deponendis usurpata : adversus Robertum 
Cardinalem Bellarminum, lib. II. In quibus respondetur 
authoribus, scripturis, rationibus, exemplis contra Gul. Bar- 
claium allatis," Lon. 1614, 4to. He published also "A 
Discourse on Kneeling at the Communion," and some oc- 
casional sermons, of which a list may be seen in Wood. l 

BUCKHURST. See SACKVILLE. 

BUCKLAND (Ralph), a popish divine of some note, 
was born at West Harptre, the seat oAjf^afc^nt family 
of his name in Somersetshire, about 1564. In 1579, he 
was admitted commoner in Magdalen college, Oxford, and 
afterwards passed some years in one of the inns of court 
•Having at last embraced the popish religion, he spent se- 
ven years in Doway college, and being ordained priest, 
returned to England, acted as a missionary for about twenty 
years, and died in 1611. He published, 1. A translation 
of the " Lives of the Saints 9 - from Surhis. 2. " A Per* 
suasive against frequenting Protestant Churches," 12 ma 

* Ath. Ox. vol. I. — Benthata's Ely.— Spotswood's Hist. p. 497, where he if 
termed bishop of Recbestejc, which Eentham says he wai not untfi ISII.-** 
ledge 9 * Illustration*, vol. III, 311. 



BUCK LAND. «t 

3. " Seven sparks of the enkindled flame/ with four lamen- 
tations, composed in the hard times of qtie£n Elizabeth," 
12mo. From this book, archbishop 'Usher, in a sermon 
preached in 1640, on Nov. 5, produced some passages 
hinting at the gun* powder plot. The passages are not, 
perhaps, very clearly in point, nor oan we suppose any 
person privy to the design' fool enough at the same time to 
give warning of it. This Buckland also; wrote " De Per-* 
secutiona Vandalica," a translation from the Latin of Vic* 
tor, bishop of Biserte, or Utica. l ' * 

BUCKLER (Benjamin), D. D. a learned and ingenious 
English clergyman and antiquary, wa$ born in 1716, and 
educated at Oriel college, Oxford, where he took his mas- 
ter* $ degree in 1739. He. was afterwards elected a fellow 
of All-Souls college, where he proceeded B. D. in 1755, 
and D. D. in 1759. In 1755 he was presented to the vi- 
carage of Cumner in Berkshire, by the earl of Abingdon. 
He was also rector of Frilsham in the same county. He 
.died and was buried at Cumner, Dec. 24, 1780, being at 
that time likewise keeper of the archives in the university 
of Oxford, to which office he was elected in 1777. His 
talents would in . all probability .have advanced him to 
higher stations, had they been less under the. influence of 
those honest principles, which, although they greatly dig- 
nify a character, are. not always of use on the road to pre- 
ferment In truth, says the author of his epitaph*, he 
preserved his integrity chaste and pure : he thought li- 
berally, and spoke openly ; a mean action was his con- 
tempt. He possessed not great riches, secular honours, 
or court favours ; but he enjoyed blessings of a much 
higher estimation, a competency, a sound mind, an honest 
.heart, a good conscience, and a faith unshaken. 

Dr» Buckler, who was an able- antiquary, assisted his 
friend and contemporary, Mr. Justice B.lackstone, in his 
researches respecting the right of fellowships, &c. in All- 
Souls college, and drew up that valuable work, the " Stem- 
mata Cbicheleana ; or, a genealogical account of some of 
.the families derived from Thomas Chichele, of Highasi* 
JFerrers, in the county of Northampton; all whose de- 

. i Ath. Ox. I Dodd's Ch. Hist vol. II. 

' 4 

* By a strange mistake, this epitaph that Dr. Bucilcr had an opportunity of 

is said (Gent. Mag. 1792, p. 224.) to contributing to the erection of his. sta* 

hare been written by Mr. Justice Black- tue in All-Souls college. 
stone, who had then been dead so long 



/ 



•240 ''BUCKLER.' 

scendants are held to be entitled to fellowships in AU-S011W 
college, Oxford, by virtue of tbeir consanguinity to arch* 
bisbop Chicheie, the founder/' Oxford, 1765, 4to. • The 
college having afterwards purchased, at Mr. Anstis's sale, 
many large MS volumes by him, relating to the history 
and constitution of this college, and the case of founder's 
kindred, Dr. Buckler published " A Supplement • to the 
Stemmata," Oxford, 1775, and afterwards went on con- 
tinuing it, as information offered itself, but no more has 
been published. We find him also as one of the proctors, 
signing his name to a pamphlet, which he probably wrote, 
entitled " A reply to Dr. Huddesford's observations relat- 
ing to the delegates of the press, with a narrative of the 
proceedings of the proctors with regard to their nomination 
of a delegate,' 9 Oxford, 1756, 4to. In this it is the ob- 
ject to prove, against Dr. Huddesford, that the right of 
nominating such delegates is in the proctors absolutely, 
and that the vice-chancellor has not a negative. 

Long before this; Dr. Buckler afforded a proof of ex- 
cellent humour. Mr. Pointer having in his account of the 
antiquities of Oxford, a superficial, and incorrect work, 
degraded the famous mallard of All-Souls into a goose, 
Buckler published, but without his name, " A complete 
vindication of the Mallard of All-Souls college against the 
injurious suggestions of the rev. Mr. Pointer/ 9 Lond. 1750, 
8vo, and a second edition, 1751. This produced another 
exquisite piece of humour, entitled " Proposals for print- 
ing by subscription, the History of the Mallardians." This 
was to have been executed in three parts, the contents of 
which will give tbe reader some idea of Mr. Bilson's hu- 
mour, and that of Rowe Mores, who assisted him in drawing 
up the proposals, and bore the expence of some engravings 
which' accompany it. u Part I. Of the origin of the Mai* 
lardians. Of the foundation of the house of Mallardians. 
The intent of that foundation, and how far it has been 
answered. Of the affinity between the Mallardians and 
the order of the Thelemites. Of the library of the Mal- 
lardians ; and of the cat that was starved to death in' iC 
Part II. Of the manners of the Mallardians* Of their co- 
messations, <:ompotations, ingurgitations, and other enor- 
mities, from their first settlement till their visitation by 
archbishop Cranmer. Part III. The subject of the second 
part co • tin ued fiom the death of archbishop Cranmer to 
the dissolution of Bradgate-Hall, alia* les Tunnys, {ire. 



BUCKLER. S41 

♦the Three Tuns Tavern). To the whole will be added, * 
full account of the annual festival of the Mai lard ians. Of 
the adventures common at this festival. Of the presidents, 
or lords of this festival, with their characters drawn at 
length. Of the Swopping-Song of the Mai lard ians, with 
annotations on the same. Of the progress of the Mallar- 
dians to Long Crendon, and of their demeanour to Da- 
inosels. And, lastly, a true history of their doughty cham- 
pion Pentrapolin a Calamo, usually styled by way of emi- 
nence, The Buckler of the Mallardians." — Dr. Buckler 
published also two occasional sermons in 1759. * 

BUCQUET (John Baptist Michel), an eminent French 
physician, censor royal, doctor-regent and professor of 
chemistry in the faculty of medicine at Paris, an adjunct 
of t^he academy of sciences, arid an ordinary associate of 
the^ royal medical society, was born at Paris, Feb. 18, 1746. 
His father intended him for the bar, but his inclination 
soon led him to relinquish that profession for the study of 
the various sciences connected with medicine, in all which 
he made great proficiency, and gave lectures on mine- 
ralogy end chemistry. His plan and familiar mode of 
teaching soon procured him numerous pupils, and connect- 
ing himself with Lavoisier and other eminent chemists, he 
instituted a variety of experiments which, while they pro- 
cured him the notice and honours of his profession, much 
impaired his health, and at a very early age, he was so de- 
bilitated in body and mind, as to require the use of stimu- 
lants to excite a momentary vigour ; he is even said to 
have taken one hundred grains of opium in a day. By 
these means he was enabled to protract his existence until 
Jan. 24, 1780, when he died completely exhausted, al- 
though only in his thirty-fourth year. Except his papers 
in the literary journals, we know of only one publication 
of Bucquet's, " Introduction a Petude des corps naturels, 
tir6s du regne vegetal," 1773, 2 vols. 12 mo. This was 
intended for the use ofhis pupils. a 

BUDDEUS (John Francis), a celebrated Lutheran di- 
vine, was born June 25, 1667, at Anclam, a town in Po- 
meKinia, where his father was a clergyman,, who bestowed 
great pains on his education, with a view to the same pro- 
fession. Before he went to the uniyersity, he was taught 

' • * 

1 Gough's Topography, vol. IL— Gent. Mag. 1792, p. 224, &c— Nicholas 
Bowyer. « ., ' • 

* Eloges des Academiciens, vol'. II. 1799.— -Diet. Hist. 

Vol. VII. ft 



242 BUDDEUS. 

Greek and Latin, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac, and bad 
veral times read the scriptures in their original tongues. In 
1685, at the age of eighteen, he was sent to Wittemberg, 
where he studied history, oriental learning, and the canon 
law, under the ablest professors, and with a success pro- 
portioned to the stock of knowledge he had previously ac- 
cumulated. In 1687 he received the degree of M, A. and 
printed on that occasion his thesis on the symbols of the 
Eucharist. In 1689 he was assistant professor of philo- 
sophy ; and some time after, having removed to Jena, gave 
lessons to the students there with the approbation and es- 
teem of the professors. In 1692 he was invited to Co- 
bourg, as professor of Greek and Latin. In 1693, when 
Frederick, elector of Brandenburgh, afterwards king of 
Prussia, founded the university of Halle, Buddeus was 
appointed professor of moral and political philosophy, and , 
after filling that office for about twelve years, he was re- 
called to Jena in 1705, to be professor of theology. The 
king of Prussia parted with him very reluctantly on this 
occasion, but Buddeus conceived his new office so much 
better calculated for his talents and inclination, that he 
retained it for the remainder of his life, refusing many 
advantageous offers in other universities ; and the dukes of 
Saxony of the Ernestine branch, to whom the university 
of Jena belongs, looking upon Buddeus as its greatest or- 
nament, procured him every comfort, and bestowed their 
confidence on him in the case of various important affairs. 
in 171*4, he was made ecclesiastical counsellor to the duke 
of Hildburghausen ; and afterwards was appointed inspec- 
tor of the students of Gotha and Altenburgh ; assessor of 
the Concilium cretins, which had the care of the university 
of Jena ; and he was several times pro-rector, the dukes 
of Saxony always reserving to themselves the rectorate of 
tiiat university. Under his care the university flourished 
in an uncommon degree, and being an enemy to the scho- 
lastic mode of teaching, he introduced that more rational 
and philosophical system which leads to useful knowledge. 
Amidst all these employments, he was a frequent and po- 
pular preacher, carried on an extensive correspondence 
with the learned men of his time, and yet found leisure for 
the composition of his numerous works. He died Nov. 19, 
J 729. A very long list of his works is given in our autho- 
rity ; the principal are : 1. u Elementa Philosophise prac- r 
ticse, instrtimenuUs et theoretic*," 2 vok. &vq. 2, "In- 



B U D D B U S. 24* 

ttttutiones Theologiae M oralis," 1711, 4to, often reprinted. 
3. " Historia Ecclesiastica Veteris «Testamenti," 1715, 
1718, 2 vols, 4to. 4. " Institutiones Theologicae, Dog-* 
maticae, variis observation ib as illustratse," 1723, 3 vols. 4to. 
5. " Miscellanea Sacra," 1727, 3 vols. 4to. 6. u The 
Great German Histbrical Dictionary," 2 vols, folio, and 
often reprinted, was principally drawn up by our author, 
and published with his name. l 

BUDEUS, or BUDE' (William), an eminent scholar 
and critic, the descendant of an ancient and illustrious 
family in France, lord of Marli-ia-ville, king's counsellor, 
and master of requests, was born at Paris in 1467. He 
was the second son of John Bude, lord of Vere and Villiers, 
secretary to the king, and one of the grand officers of the 
French chancery. In his infancy he was provided with 
masters ; but such was the low state of Parisian education 
at that time, that when sent to the university of Orleans to 
study law, he remained there for three years, without 
making any progress, for want of a proper knowledge of 
the Latin language. Accordingly, on his return home, his 
parents had the mortification to discover that he was as 
ignorant as when he went, disgusted with study of any 
kind, and obstinately bent to pass his time amidst the 
gaieties and pleasures of youth, a course which his fortune 
enabled him to pursue. But after he had indulged this 
humour for sorne time, an ardent passion for study seized 
him, and became irresistible. He immediately disposed 
of his horses, dogs, &c. with which he followed the chace, 
applied himself to study, and in a short time made very 
considerable progress, although he had no masters, nor 
either instruction or example in his new pursuit. He be- 
came, in particular, an excellent Latin scholar, and although 
his style is not so pure or polished as that of those who 
formed themselves in early life on the best models, it is 
far from being deficient in fluency or elegance. His know- 
ledge of the Greek was so great that John de Lascaris, the 
most learned Grecian of his time, declared that Budd might 
be compared with the 6rst orators of ancient Athens. This 
language is perhaps complimentary, but it cannot be de- 
nied that his knowledge of Greek was very extraordinary, 
considering how little help he derived from, instructions.. 
He, indeed, employed at a large salary, one Hermonymus, 

1 Bibliotheqve Germanique, vol. XXII.— Chaufepie Diet.— Saxji Ononis*. 

R 2 



244 B U D E U S. 

but soon found that be was very superficial, and had ac- 
quired the reputation of a Greek scholar merely from 
knowing a little mcfre than the French literati, who at that 
time knew nothing. Hence Bud£ used to call himself oi/to- 
IJLO&vn & o^tfiaSvis, i. c. self-taught and late taught. The work 
by which he gained most reputation, and published under 
the title u De Asse," was one of the first efforts to clear up 
the difficulties relating to the coins and measures of the 
ancients; and although an Italian, Leonardus Portius, pre- 
tended to claim tome of his discoveries, Bud6 vindicated 
his right to them with spirit and success. Previously tp 
this he had printed a translation of some pieces of Plutarch, 
and " Notes upon the Pandects." His fame having 
reached the court, he was invited to it, but was at first 
rather reluctant. He appears to have been one N of those 
who foresaw the advantages of a diffusion of learning, and 
at the same time perceived an unwillingness in the court 
to entertain it, lest it should administer to the introduction 
of what was called heresy. Charles VIII. was the first 
who invited him to court, but died soon after : his suc- 
cessor Louis Xlf. employed him twice on embassies to 
Italy, and made him his secretary. This favour continued 
in the reign of Francis I. who sent for Bude to % cotirt when 
it was held at Ardres at the interview of that monarch with 
Henry VIII. the king of England. From this time Francis 
paid him much attention, appointed him his librarian, and 
master of the requests, while the Parisians elected him 
provost of the merchants. This political influence he em- 
ployed in promoting the interests of literature, and sug- 
gested to Francis I. the design of establishing professor- 
ships for languages and the sciences at Paris. The ex- 
cessive heats of the year 1540 obliging the king to take a 
journey to the coast of Normandy, Bud£ accompanied his 
majesty, but unfortunately was seized with a fever, which 
carried him off Aug. 23, 1540, at Paris. His funeral was 
private, and at night, by his own desire. This circum- 
stance created a suspicion that he died in the reformed re- 
ligion ; but of this there is no direct proof, and although 
he occasionally made free with the court of Rome and the 
corruptions of the clergy in his works, yet in them like- 
wise he wrote with equal asperity of the reformers. Eras- 
mus called him portentum Gallite, the prodigy of France. 
There was a close connection between these two great 
men. " Their letters," says the late Dr, Jortin, " though 



BUDEUS. 245 

full of compliments and civilities, are also full of little 
bickerings and contests : which shew that their friendship 
was not entirely free from some small degree qf jealousy 
and envy; especially on the side of Bud£, who yet in ' 
other respects was an excellent person/' It is not easy 
to determine on which side the jealousy lay ; perhaps it 
was on both. Bud6 might envy Erasmus for his superior 
taste and wit, as well as his more extensive learning; and * 
perhaps Erasmus might envy Bud6 for a superior know- 
ledge of the Greek tongue, which' was generally ascribed 
to him. 

Bud£ was a student of incessant application, and when 
we consider him as beginning his studies late, and being 
afterwards involved in public business, and the cares of a 
numerous family, it becomes astonishing that he found 
leisure for the works he gave to the public. He appears 
in general to haye been taken with the utmost reluctance 
from his studies. He even complains in the preface to his 
book " De Asse," that he had not more than six hours 
study on his wedding-day. He married, however, a lady 
who assisted him in his library, reaching him what books 
he requested, and looking out particular passages which he 
might warft. In one of his letters he represents himself as 
married to two wives, by one of whom he had sons and 
daughters ; and by the other named Philologia, he had 
books, which contributed to the maintenance of his natu- 
ral issue. In another he remarks that, for the first twelve 
years of his marriage, he had produced more children than % 
books, but hopes soon to bring his publications on a par 
with his children. It is of him a story is told, which, if 
we mistake not, has been applied to another : One day a 
servant entered his study, in a great fright, and exclaimed 
that the house was on fire. BudI said calmly, " Why don't 
you inform your mistress ? you know 1 never concern my- 
self about the house !" — What affords some probability 
that Bud6 had imbibed the sentiments of the reformers in 
his latter days, is the circumstance of his widow retiring to 
Geneva, with some of her family, and making an open 
profession of the , protestant religion. It appears by the 
collections in Baillet, Blount, and Jortin in his " Life of 
Erasmus," that the eulogies which Bud6 received from the 
learned men of his time are exceedingly numerous. His 
works were printed at Basil in 1557, 4 vols, folio. The 
, most important of them is his " Commentarii Gracse Lin- 



ue B U D E U S. 

guse," which is still highly valued by Greek scholars. 
The best edition is that of Basil, 1556, fol. 1 

BUDDEN (John), a civilian of Oxford, the son of John 
Budden of Canford, in Dorsetshire, was born in that 
county in 1566, and entered Merton college in 1582, but 
was admitted scholar of Trinity college in May of the fol- 
lowing year, where he took his bachelor's degree. He 
was soon after removed to Gloucester hall, wbere he took 
• his master's degree, but chiefly studied civil law. He was 
at length made philosophy reader of Magdalen college, 
and took his bachelor and doctor's degrees in civil law in 
1602. In 1609 he was made principal of New-inn, and 
soon after king's professor of civil law, and principal of 
Broadgate's hall, where he died June 11, 1620, and was 
buried in the chancel of St Aldate's church. Wood says 
he was a person of great eloquence, an excellent rheto- 
rician, philosopher, and civilian. He wrote the lives of 
" William of Wainflete," founder of Magdalen college, in 
Latin, Oxon, 1602, 4to, reprinted in "Batesii Vitas;" and 
of " Archbishop Morton," London, 1607, 8vo. He also 
made the Latin translation of sir Thomas Bodley's statutes 
for his library ; and sir Thomas Smith's " Common Wealth 
of England;" and from the French of P. Frodius, a civilian, 
" A Discourse for Parents' Honour and Authority over their 
Children," Lond. 1614, 8vo. 8 

BUDGELL (Ectstace), esq. a very ingenious but un- 
fortunate writer, was born at St. Thomas, near Exeter, 
about 1685, and educated at Christ-church, Oxford. His 
'father, Gilbert Budgell, D. D. descended of an ancient 
family in Devonshire ; his mother, Mary, was only 
daughter of Dr. William Gulston, bishop of Bristol, whose 
sister Jane married dean Addison, and was mother to the 
famous Addison. After some years stay in the university, 
Mr. Budgell went to London, and was entered of the In- 
ner Temple, in order to study law, for which his father 
always intended him ; but his inclinations led him more to 
study polite literature, and keep company with the gen- 
teelest persons in town. During his stay at the Temple, 
he contracted a strict intimacy and friendship with Ad- 
dison, who was first cousin to his mother ; and when Addi- 
son was appointed secretary to lord Wharton, lord-lieu- 

l Gen. Diet.— Moreri. — Vita per Lud. Regium Codstantioum, Paris, 1542, 
■ 4to, and in JUtesii Vitie.— Jortin's Erasmus.— Bafllet Jugemeos de Savans,— 
gaxi't Onomast. * Wood'r Ath, vol. L 



BUDGELL 247 

tenant of Ireland, he offered to make his friend Eus- 
tace one of the clerks of his office, which Mr. Budgell 
readily accepted. This was in April 1710, when he was 
about twenty-five years of age. He had by this time read 
the classics, the most reputed historians, and the best 
French, English, and Italian writers, and became con- 
cerned with Steele and Addison, not in writing the Tatler, 
as has been asserted, but the Spectator, which was begun 
in. ITU. All the papers marked with an X were written* 
by him, and the whole eighth volume is attributed to Ad- 
dison and himself, without the assistance of Steele. Se- 
veral little epigrams and songs, which have a good deal of 
wit in them, together with the epilogue to the " Distressed 
Mother," which had a greater run than any thing of the 
kind before, were also written by Mr. Budgell near this 
time ; all which, together with the known affection of Ad- 
dison for him, raised his character so much as to give him 
considerable consequence in the literary and political 
world. Upon the laying down of the Spectator, the 
Guardian was set up ; and to this wort our author contri- 
buted, along with Addison and Steele. In the preface it 
is said, that those papers marked with an asterisk were 
written by Mr. Budgell. 

Having regularly made his progress in the secretary of 
state's office in Ireland, upon the arrival of George I. in 
England, he was appointed under secretary to Addison, 
and chief secretary to the lords justices of Ireland. He 
was made likewise deputy-clerk of the council in that 
kingdom; and soon after chosen member of the Irish* 
parliament, where he acquitted himself as a very good 
speaker, and performed all his official duties with great 
exactness and ability, and with very singular disinterest- 
edness. In 1717, when Addison became principal secre- 
tary of state in England, he procured for Mr. Budgell the 
place of accomptant and comptroller-general of the revenue 
in Ireland, and might have had him for bis under-secre- 
tary ; but it was thought more expedient for his majesty's 
service that he should continue where he was. He held 
these several places till 1718, at which time the duke of 
Bolton was appointed lord-lieutenant His grace carried 
over with him one Mr. Edward Webster, whom he made a 
privy-counsellor and his secretary. A misunderstanding 
arising on some account or other, between this gentleman 
and Mr. Budgell, the latter treated Mr. Webster himself, 



248 BUDGELL 

his education, bis abilities, and his family, with the utmost 
contempt. Mr. Budgell was indiscreet enough (for he 
was naturally proud and full of resentment) to write a lam- 
poon, prior to this, in which the lord- lieutenant was not 
spared ; and which he published in spite of all Addison 
could say against it. Hence many discontents arose be- 
tween them, till at length, the lord-lieutenant, in support 
of his secretary, superseded Mr. Budgell, and very soon 
after got him removed from the place of accomp tan t- ge- 
neral. Mr. Budgell, not thinking it safe to continue longei* 
in Ireland, set out for England, and soon after his arrival 
published a pamphlet representing his case, entitled " A 
Letter to the lord ***, from Eustace Budgell, esq. ao 
compt ant- genial of Ireland, and late secretary to their 
excellencies tne lords justices of that kingdom;" eleven 
hundred copies of which were sold ,off in one day, either 
from curiosity, or sympathy with his sufferings, which 
seem about this time to have affected his reason. In the 
Postboy of Jan. 17, 1719, he published an advertisement 
to justify his character against reports which had been 
spread to bis disadvantage ; and he did not scruple to de- 
clare in all companies, that his life was attempted by his 
enemies, which deterred him from attending his seat in 
parliament. Such behaviour made many of his friends 
conclude him delirious; his passions were certainly very 
strong, nor were his vanity and jealousy less predominant. 
Addison, who had resigned the seals, and was retired into 
the country for the sake of his health, found it impossible 
to stem the tide of opposition, which was every where 
running against his kinsman, through the influence and 
power of the duke of Bolton ; and therefore dissuaded him 
in the strongest terms from publishing his case, but to no 
manner of purpose : which made him tell a friend in great 
anxiety, that " Mr. Budgell was wiser than any man he 
ever knew, and yet he supposed the world would hardly 
believe that he acted contrary to his advice." 

Mr. Budgell's great and noble friend lord Halifax, to 
whom in 1713 he had dedicated a translation of " Theo- 
phrastus's. Characters," was dead, and lord Orrery, who 
held him in the highest esteem, had it not in bis power to 
serve him. Addison had indeed got a, promise from lord 
Sunderland, that, as soon as the present clamour was a 
little abated, he would do something for him ; but that 
gentleman's death, happening in 1719, put an end to all 
hopes of succeeding at court : where he continued, never- 



B U D G E L L. 249 

m theless, to make several attempts, but was constantly kept 
down by the weight of tbe duke of Bolton. One case 
seems peculiarly hard. The duke of Portland, who was 
appointed governor of Jamaica, made Budgell his secre- 
tary, who was about to sail, when a secretary of «tate was 
sent to the duke, to acquaint him " that he might take 
any man in England for his secretary, excepting Mr. 
Budgell, but that he must not take him.'" In 1720, the 
fatal year of the South Sea, he was almost ruined, having 
lost above 20,000/. in it. He tried* afterwards to get into 
parliament at several places, and spent 50001. more in 
unsuccessful attempts, which completed his ruin. And 
from this period he began to behave and live in a different 
manner from what he had done before; wrote libellous 
pamphlets against sir Robert Walpole and the ministry, 
and did many unjust things in regard to his relations, being 
distracted in his own private fortune, as indeed he was 
judged tp be in his senses. In 1727 he had 1000/. given 
him by the duchess of Marlborough, to whose husband, 
the famous duke, he was related by his mother's side, with 
a view to his getting into parliament. She ,knew that he 
had a talent for speaking in public, that he was acquainted 
with business, and would probably run any lengths against 
the ministry. But this scheme failed, for he could never 
get chosen. In 1730 he joined the band of writers against 
the administration, and published many papers in the 
" Craftsman." He published also, about the same time, 
many other pieces of a political nature. In 1733, he be- 
gan a weekly pamphlet called " The Bee," which he con- 
tinued for about a hundred numbers, making seven or 
eight volumes, 8vo. During the progress of this work, 
which was entirely filled with his own disputes and con- 
cerns, and exhibited many proofs of a mind deranged by 
oppression, or debased by desperate efforts to retrieve his 
character, Dr. Tindal died, by whose will Mr. Budgell 
had 2000/. left him ; and the world being surprised at such, 
a gift from a man entirely unrelated to him, to the ex^ 
elusion of the next heir, a nephew, and the continuator 
of Rapin's History of England, immediately imputed it 
to his making the will himself. Thus the satirist : 

" Let Budgell charge low Grub-street on my quill, 

And write whate'er he please — except my Will." Pope. 

It was thought he had some hand' in publishing Dr. 
Tindal' s " Christianity as old as the Creation," for he often 



J50 B U D G £ I L, 

talked of another additional volume on the same subject, 
but never published it. However, he used to inquire very 
frequently after Dr. Conybeare's health, who had been 
employed by queen Anne to answer the first volume, and 
rewarded with the deanery of Christ-church for his pains ; 
saying, " he hoped Mr. Dean would live a little longer, 
that he might have the pleasure of making him a bishop ; 
for he intended very soon to publish the other volume of 
Tindal, which would certainly do the business." 

After the cessation of " The Bee," he became so in- 
volved in law-suits, that he was reduced to a very unhappy 
situation. He now returned to his original destination of 
the bar, and attended for some time in the courts of law ; 
% but finding himself incapable of making any progress, and 
being distressed to the utmost, he determined at length 
on suicide. Accordingly, in 1736, he took a boat at So- 
merset stairs, after filling bis pockets with stones, and 
ordered the waterman to shoot the bridge ; and, while the 
boat was going under, threw himself into the river, where 
he perished immediately. Several days before, he had 
been visibly distracted in his mind, but no care was taken 
of him. He was never married, but left one natural 
daughter behind him, who afterwards took his name, and 
was some time an actress at Drury-lane. The morning 
before he committed this act upon himself, he endeavoured 
to persuade this lady, who was then only eleven years old, 
to accompany him, which she very wisely refused. Upon 
his bureau was found a slip of paper, on which were writ- 
ten these words : 

« What Cato did, and Addison apprcVd, 
Cannot be wrong." 

which, however, as far as respects Addison's approval, 
was a mere delusion of his own brain. 

Mr. Budgell, as a writer, is very agreeable ; not argu- 
mentative, or deep, but ingenious and entertaining ; and 
his style was thought peculiarly elegant, and almost 
ranked with Addison's, and it is certainly superior to that 
of most English writers* Besides what are above men- 
tioned, be published : " Memoirs of the Lives and Cba-' 
racters of the family of the Boyles," 1737, 8vo, thijrd 
edition, a work of unquestionable authority, in most of the 
facts. Except this and his papers in the Spectator, none 
•f his works are now in request ; but his life is interesting 



B U D G E L Li 251 

and instructive. His wayward temper ; indulgence of pas- 
sion and spleen ; irregular ambition ; and bis connection 
with Tindal, which ended in a dereliction of moral and 
religions principle, sufficiently explain the causes of his 
unbappiness, and afford an important lesson. 1 

BUFFALMACCO (Buonamioo), an eminent Italian 
painter, was born at Florence in 1262, and was for some 
years a disciple of Andrea Tassi. He was pleasant in bis 
conversation, and somewhat ingenious in his compositions. 
A friend, whose name was Bruno, consulting him one day 
how he might give more expression to his subject, Buffal- 
macco answered, that he had nothing to do, but to make 
the words come out of the mouths of his figures by labels, 
on which they might be written, which had been before 
practised by Cimabue. Bruno, thinking him in earnest, 
did so, as several CTerman painters did after him ; who, im- 
proving upon Bruno, added answers to questions, and 
made their figures enter into a kind of conversation. Buf- 
falmacco died in 1340. * 

BUFFIER (Claude), a learned metaphysician, and vo- 
luminous writer, was born in Poland, of French parents, 
May 25, 1661. His parents having removed to Rouen, he 
was educated there, and afterwards entered among the Je- 
suits at Paris in 1679, and took the four vows in 1695. 
In 1698 he went to Rome, not at the invitation of the ge- 
neral of his order, as has been asserted, but merely to see 
that celebrated city, in which he remained about four 
months, and then returned to Paris, where he passed the 

freater part of his life in the Jesuits college. Here he was 
rst employed on the " Memoires de Trevoux," and after- 
wards wrote his nuiherous separate publications. He died 
JVlay .17, 1737. His eloge appeared in the " Memoires 
in the same year, but principally regards his writings, as 
his life appears to have passed without any striking or cha- 
racteristic circumstances, being entirely devoted to the 
composition of works of learning or piety, of which the 
following is supposed to be a correct list : 1. Some French 
verses on the taking of Mons and Montmelian, inserted in 
the " Recueil de vers choisis," Paris, 170 1, 12mo. 2. " La 
vie de FHermite de Compiegne," Paris, 1692, 1737, 12 mo. 
3. " Vie de Dominique George," abbot of Valricher, Paris, 
1696, 12mo. 4. " Pratique de la memoire artificieUe 

* Biog. Brit.— Gibber's LiYei, vol. V.— British Essayists, vol VI. Pret t* 
the Spectator. f PUking fcm. 



252 BUFFIER. 

pour apprendre et pour retenir la chronologie, Phistoire 
universelle, &c." Paris, 1701, 3 vols, and often reprinted 
and extended to 4 vols. 5. u Veritas consolantes du Chris- 
tianisme," ibid. 1718, 2d edit. 16mo. 6. " Histoire de 
Porigine du royaume de Sicile et de JNaples," ibid. 1701, 
12 mo. 7. " La pratique desdevoirs des cure's," from the 
Italian, Lyons, 1702, 12mo. 8. " Abr6g6 de Phistoire 
d'Espagne," Paris, 1704, 12mo. 9. " Examen de pre- 
jug£s vulgaires pour disposer P esprit a juger sainement 
de tout," ibid. 1704, l2u*o. 10. " Les Abeilles," a fable. 
1 L " Le degat du Parnasse, ou La Fausse Utterature," a 
poem, ibid. 1705. 12. " La vie du comte Louis de Sales," 
ibid. 1708, 12mo, afterwards translated into Italian, and 
often reprinted. 1 3. " Grammaire Francoise sur un plan 
nouveau," ibid. 1709, 12 mo, often reprinted. 14. " Le 
veritable esprit et le saint emploi des fetes de Peglise," 
ibid. 1712, 12mo. 15. " Les principes du raisonnement 
exposes en deux logiques nouvelles, avee des remarques 
sur les logiques," &c. ibid. 1714, 12mo. 16. ** Geogra- 
phic universelle avec le secours des vers artificiels et avec 
des cartes," ibid. 1715, 2 vols* 12mo. 17. " Homere en 
arbitrage," ibid. 1715; two letters addressed to the mar- 
chioness Lambert, on tbe dispute between madame Dacier 
and de la Motte, on Homer. 18. " Hist, chronologique du 
dernier siecle, &c." from the year 1600, ibid. 1715, 12 mo. 
1^. " Introduction a Phistoire de maisons souveraines de 
PEurope," Paris, 1717, 3 vols. 12mo. 20. " Exercice de la : 
pict6," &c ib. 1718, often reprinted. 21. " Tableau chro- 
nologique de Phistoire uo i verse! le en forme de jeu," Paris, 
1718. 22. " Nouveaux elemens cPhistoire et de geogra- 
phic," Paris, 1718. 23: " Sen ti mens Chretien sur les 
principales Veritas de la religion," in prose and verse, and 
with engravings, 1718, 12 mo. 24. " Trait£ des pre- 
mieres verites," Paris, 1724, 12 mo. A translation of this, 
one of father Buffer's most celebrated works, was pub- 
lished in 1781, under the title of " First Truths, and tbe 
origin of our opinions explained ; with an inquiry into the 
sentiments of moral philosophers, relative to our primary 
notions of things," 8vo. The author has proved himself 
to be a metaphysician of considerable abilities, and with 
many it will be no diminution of his merit, that he starts 
some principles here, which were afterwards adopted and 
expanded by Drs. Reid, Oswald, and Beattie, under the 
denomination of common sense. To prove how much 



B U F F I E R. 25$ 

these gentlemen have been indebted to him, appears to be 
the sole object of this translation, and especially of the 
preface, which, says one of the literary Journals, " though 
it is not destitute of shrewdness, yet is so grossly illiberal, 
that we remember not -to have read any thing so offensive 
to decency and good manners, even in the rancorous pro- 
ductions of some of the late controvertists in metaphysics* 
The writer hath exceeded Dr. Priestley in the abuse of the 
Scotch doctors ; but with a larger quantity of that author's 
virulence, hath unluckily too small a portion of his inge- 
nuity and good sense, to recompense for that shameful af- 
front to candour and civility which is too flagrant in every 
page, to escape the notice or indignation of any unpreju- 
diced reader." 

Father Buffier's next work, which may be considered as 
a supplement to tfye former was, 25% " Elemens de Meta- 
physique a la portee de tout le monde," ibid. 1725, 12 mo. 
26. " Traits de la society civile," ibid. 1726. 27. "Trails 
philosophiques et pratiques d'eloquence et de poesie," 
ibid. 1728, % vols. 12 mo. 28. "Exposition des preuves 
les plus seusibles de la veritable religion," ibid. 1732, 
12mo. Besides these he contributed some papers on phi- 
lological subjects to the u Memoires de Trevoux." The 
greater and best part of the preceding works were collected 
and published in a folio volume in 1732, under the title, 
" Cours des Sciences sur des principes nouveaux et sim- 
ples, &c." with additions and corrections, the whole form- 
ing an useful and perspicuous introduction to the sciences. 
Buffier was not only one of the ablest and most industrious 
writers of his time, but one of the safest ; and his having 
made no progress in infidelity, while he professed to be a 
metaphysician, seems to be the principal objection which 
succeeding French philosophers brought against him. l 

BUFFON (George Louis Le Cleuc, Count of) the 
most eminent French naturalist of the eighteenth century, 
the son of a counsellor of the parliament of Dijon, was 
born at Montbard in Burgundy, September the 7th, 1707. 
Having manifested an early inclination to the sciences, he 
gave up the profession of the law, for which his father had 
designed him. The science which seems to have engaged 
his earliest attachment was astronomy ; with a view to 
which he applied with such ardour to the study of geome- 

1 Moreri.— -Diet. Hist— Monthly Review, vol. LXIII, 



i$* B U FFON. 

try, that he always carried in his pocket .the elements of 
Euclid. At the age of twenty he travelled into Italy, and 
in the course of his tour he directed his attention to the 
phenomena of nature more than to the productions of art : 
and at this early period he was also ambitious of acquiring 
the art of writing with ease and elegance. In 1728 he 
succeeded to the estate of bis mother. « estimated at about 
12,000/. a year; which by rendering his circumstances af- 
fluent and independent, enabled him to indulge his taste . 
in those scientific researches and literary pursuits, to which 
his future life was devoted. Having concluded his travels, 
at the age of twenty-five, with a journey to England, he 
afterwards resided partly at Paris, where, in 1739, he was 
appointed superintendant of the royal garden and cabinet, 
and partly oik his estate at Montbard. Although he was- 
fond of society, and a complete sensualist, he was indefa- 
tigable in his application, and is said to have employed 
fourteen hours every day in study ; he would sometimes 
return from the suppers at Paris at two in the morning, 
when he was young, and order a boy to call him at five ; 
and if he lingered in bed, to drag him out on the floor. 
At this early hour it was his custom, at Montbard, to dress, 
powder, dictate letters, and regulate his domestic concerns. 
At six he retired to his stujly, which was a pavilion called 
the Tower of St. Louis, about a furlong from the house, at 
the extremity of the garden, and which was accommodated 
only with an ordinary wooden desk and an armed chair. 
Within this was another sanctuary, denominated by prince 
Henry of Prussia u the Cradle of Natural History," in 
which he was accustomed to compose, and into which 
no one was suffered to intrude. At nine his breakfast, 
which consisted of two glasses of wine and a bit of bread, 
was brought to his study ; and after breakfast he wrote for 
about two hours, and then returned to his house. At din- 
ner he indulged himself in all the gaieties and trifles which 
occurred at table, and in that freedom of conversation, 
which obliged the ladies, when any of character were his 
guests, to withdraw. When dinner was finished, he paid 
little attention either to his family or guests ; but having 
slept about an hour in his room, he took a solitary walk, 
and then he would either converse with his friends or sit at 
h^s desk, examining papers that were submitted to his 
judgment. This kind of life he passed for fifty years ; and 
to one who expressed his astonishment at his great reputa- 



. ^A 



BUFFON. 26* 

tion, be replied, €t Have not I spent fifty years at my 
desk ?" At nine he retired to bed. In this course he pro- 
longed his life, notwithstanding his excessive indulgences 
with women, and his excruciating sufferings occasioned by 
the gravel and stone, which he bore with singular fortitude 
and patience, to his 8 1st year ; and retained his senses till 
within a few hours of his dissolution, which happened on 
the 16th of April, 1788. His body was embalmed, and 
presented first at St. Medard's church, and afterwards con* 
veyed to Montbard, where he had given orders in his will 
to be interred in the same vault with his wife. His funeral 
was attended by a great concourse of academicians, and 
persous of rank, and Jiterary distinction ; and a crowd of at 
least 20,000 spectators assembled in the streets through 
which the hearse was to pass. When his body was opened, 
57 stones were found in his bladder, some of which were as 
large as a small bean : and of these 37 were crystallized in 
a triangular form, weighing altogether two ounces and six 
drams. All his other parts were perfectly sound ; his brain, 
was found to be larger than the. ordinary size ; and it was 
the opinion of the gentlemen of the faculty who examined 
the body, that the operation of the lithotomy might have 
. been performed without the least danger ; but to this mode 
of relief M. Buffon had invincible objections. He left one 
son, who fell a victim to the atrocities under Robespierre. 
This son had erected a 'monument to his father in the gar- 
dens of Montbard; which consisted of a simple column, 
with this inscription ; 

" Excels® turn humilis columna 
Parenti suo filius Buffon, 1785." 

The father, upon seing this monument, burst into tears, 
and said to the young man, " Son, this will do you ho- 
nour." iBuffon was a member of the French academy, 
and perpetual treasurer of the academy of sciences. With 
a view to the preservation of his tranquillity, he wisely 
avoided the intrigues and parties that disgracefully occu- 
pied most of the French literati in his time ; nor did he 
ever reply to the 'attacks that were made upon his works. 
In 1771 his estate was erected into a comt£; and thus the 
decoration of rank, to which he was by no means indif- 
ferent, was annexed to the superior dignity he had ac- 
quired as one of the most distinguished members of the re- 
public of letters. 

With respect to personal character, his figure was noble 



256 BUFFON, 

aud manly, and bis countenance, even in advanced age, - 
and notwithstanding excruciating pains, which deprived 
him of sleep sometimes for sixteen successive nights, was 
calm and placid, and exhibited traces of singular intelli- 
gence. Vanity, however, which seemed to have been his 
predominant passion, extended even to his person and to 
all his exterior ornaments. He was particularly fond of 
having his hair neatly dressed, and for this purpose he 
employed the friseur, in old age, twice or thrice a day. 
To his dress he was peculiarly attentive ; and took pleasure 
in appearing on Sundays before the peasantry of Montbard 
in laced clothes. At table, as already noticed, he indulged 
in indelicate and licentious pleasantries, and he was fond 
of hearing every gossiping tale which his attendants could 
relate. In his general intercourse with females he was as 
lax and unguarded as in his conversation. During the life 
of his wife, he was chargeable with frequent infidelities ; 
and he proceeded to the very unwarrantable extreme of 
debauching young women, and even of employing means 
to procure abortion. His confidence, in the latter period 
of his life, was almost wholly engrossed by a mademoiselle 
Blesseau, who lived with him for many years. His vanity 
betrayed itself on a variety of occasions in relation to his 
literary performances, which were often the subjects of 
his discourse, and even of his commendation. When he 
was recommending the perusal of capital works in every 
department of taste and science, he added, with singular 
presumption and self-confidence j. " Capital works are 
► scarce; I know but five great geniuses ; — Newton, Bacon, 
Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and myself P He was in the ha- 
bit of reciting to those who visited him whole pages of his 
compositions, for he seemed to know them almost all by 
heart ; but notwithstanding his vanity, he listened to ob- 
jections, entered into a discussion of them, and surren-. 
dered his own opinion to that of others, when his judg- 
ment was convinced. He expressed himself with rapture 
concerning the pleasures accruing from study ; and be 
declared his preference of the writings to the conversations 
t of learned men, which almost always disappointed him ; and 
therefore he voluntarily secluded himself from society with 
such, and in company was fond of trifling. He maintained, 
however, an extensive correspondence with persons of rank 
and eminence, but his vanity was perpetually recurring, 
particularly towards the end of his life, when his infidelity 



BUFFO.N. 257 

suggested to him that immortal renown was the most pow- 
erful of death-bed consolations *. 

Of his infidelity, his works afford ample evidence ; but' 
in bis contempt for religion, he contrived to add hypocrisy 
to impiety, attending with regularity the external obser- 
vances of religion, under pretence that, as there must be a 
religion for the multitude, we should -avoid giving offence. 
" I have always," he said, " named the Creator; but it is 
only putting, mentally in its place, the energy of nature, 
which results from the two great laws of attraction and im- 
pulse. When the Sorbonne plagued me, I gave all the 
satisfaction which they solicited : it was a form that I de- 
spised, but men are silly enough to be so satisfied. For 
the same reason, when I fall dangerously ill, I shall not 
hesitate to send for the sacraments. This is due to the 
public religion. Those who act otherwise are madmen." 
Yet, gross as this hypocrisy was as to externals, it wa* 
not permitted to interfere with his personal vices. .These - 
he practised to the last with a zest of unfeeling profligacy 
that has, perhaps, never been exceeded ; the debauching 
of female children forming his constant and his last delight. 
He never fails to allude to sensual gratifications in his 
wo As, and never lost sight of the object in practice. Yet 
this is the man to whom one of his countrymen, Herault 
de Sechelles, applied the epithets " great and good," an 
encomium which has been translated in some of the English 
journals without remark. 

His first publication was a translation from the English 
of " Hales' s Vegetable Statics," 1735, which was followed 
in 1740 by a translation from the Latin of "Newton's 
Fluxions.'* His " Theory of the Earth" was first published 
in 1 744, whieh was included in his more celebrated work 
entitled " Natural History, general and particular," which 
commenced in 1749, and at its completion in 1767 ex- 
tended to 15 vols. 4to, or 31 vols. 12mo; and supplements, 
amounting to several more volumes, were afterwards added* 
In the anatomical part the author was aided by M. D' Au- % 
benton, but in all the other parts Buffon himself displays 
his learning, genius, and eloquence, and indulges his fancy 

* Buffon, daring tbe greater pari of de Buffon (and many were addressed 
his life, was highly respected in all to him fr6m every part of the world), 
Europe; and it is said, that during the they immediately forwarded them to 
war 1755 — 62, whenever the captains Paris unopened, — a mark of reverence 
of English privateers found in their for genius which we are happy to re- 
prizes any boxes addressed to count cord. 

Vol. VII. S 



253 BUFFON. 

in exploring and delineating the whole ceconomy of nature* 
To this work, which includes only the history of quadru^ 
peds, he added, in 1776, a supplementary volume, con-' 
taining the history of several new animals, and additions* 
to most of those before described. As this, as well as his* 
other works, has been so long before the public, it would 
be unnecessary to enter in this place on their excellences- 
or defects. All succeeding naturalists have found some-r 
thing to blame and something to praise in his works, with? 
respect to facts, and much indeed with regard to theory. 

After th£ completion of his history of quadrupeds in 
1767, Buffon was interrupted in the prepress of his labours- 
by a severe and tedious indisposition ; and therefore the 
two first volumes of his " History of Birds" did not appear 
till 1771. In the composition of the greatest part of these 
he was indebted to the labours of M. Gueneau de Mont- 
beillard, who adhered so closely to Buffon' s mode of think- 
ing and of expression, that the public" could not perceive 
any difference. The four subsequent volumes were the 
joint production of both writers : and each author prefixed 
his name to his own articles. The three remaining vo- 
lumes were written by Buffon himself, with the assistance 
of the abbe Bexon, who formed the nomenclature, drew 
up most of the descriptions, and communicated several 
important hints. The work was completed in 1783, but 
on account of the much greater number of species of birds 
than of quadrupeds, the want of systematic arrangement 
is more to be regretted in this than in the other history. 
A translation of Buffon's " Natural History," by Mr. 
Smellie of Edinburgh, comprised in 8 vols. 8vo, was pub- 
lished in 1781 ; to which a 9th volume was added in 1786, 
containing a translation of a supplementary volume o£ 
Buffon, consisting chiefly of curious and interesting 
facts with regard to the history of the earth. The trans- 
late* has omitted the anatomical dissections and mensura- 
tions of M. D'Aubentop, which greatly enhanced the bulk, 
as well as the price of the original, and which the author 
himself had omitted in the last Paris edition of his per- 
formance. There are likewise some other omissions, which 
are not very important, respecting the method of studying 
natural history, methodical distributions, and the mode of 
describing animals. These omissions have been amply 
compensated by the translator's addition of short distinctive 
descriptions to each species of quadrupeds, of the figures 



BUFFON, «ft 

of several new animals, and of the synonyms, as Well as 
the generic and specific characters given by Linnasus, 
Klein, Brisson, and other naturalists, together with occa- 
sional notes. Buffon's " History of Birds," in 9 vols. 8vo, 
with notes and additions, translated by Mr. Leslie, was 
also published in 1793. 

In 1774 Buffon began to publish a " Supplement" to 
his Natural History, consisting of the " History of Mine- 
rals," which contains many curious and valuable experi- 
ments, as well as much theory, too lax for the rigour of 
modern science. The' concluding volume may be consi- 
dered as a kind of philosophical romance. It comprehends 
what the author fancifully denominates the " Epochas of 
Nature," or those great changes in the state of the garth 
which he supposes to have successively resulted from his 
hypothesis of its original formation out of tjie sun. Of 
these epochas he enumerates seven, of which six are sup- 
posed to have been previous to the creation of man. In 
the description of these epochas, as to both their causes 
and effects, the author has indulged the sport of fancy, 
and formed a sort of fairy tale, which he has contrived to 
render amusing and instructive. His works have been col- 
lected and published in 35 vols. 4 to, and 62 vols. 12 mo, 
and of the whole or parts of them new editions occasionally 
appear. After he had completed bis " History of Mine- 
rals," he had formed a design of composing the " History 
of Vegetables;" but this project was defeated by his death. 
Several of the subjects that occur in his " Natural History,** 
and its supplements, have been discussed in separate me- 
moirs, and may be found in the Memoirs of the royal aca- 
demy of sciences at Paris, for the years 1737, 1738, 1739, 
1741 and 1742. 1 ' 

BUGENHAGIUS, or BUGENHAGEN (John), one of 
the German reformers, sometimes, from his native country, 
called Pomeranus, was born at Julin, or Wollin, near 
Stetin, in Pomerania, June 24, 1 485, and his parents be- 
ing of some rank in the state were enabled to give him a 
very liberal education. He was sent early to the univer- 
sity of Grypswald, where he employed his time so Assi- 
duously in classical learning, that, at the age of twenty, he 
taught school at Treptow, and raised that school to a very 
high degree of reputation* The first impressions he ap- 

1 Rees's and Brewster's Cyclopaedias.— Herault Sechelles, in Peltier's Paris 
jamdantVannee 1795 and 1796,— Jiloges det Acad«raiciens, val v IV, 

S 2 



260 BUGENHAGIUS. 

peats to- have received of the necessity of a reformation 
was from a tract of Erasmus : this induced him to look 
with more attention into the sacred volume, and he pro- 
ceeded to instruct others by lecturing in his school on va- 
rious parts of the Old and New Testament. As a preacher 
he likewise became very popular, and chiefly on account 
of his learning, in which he exceeded many of his contem- 
poraries. His knowledge extending also to history and 
antiquities, prince Bogislaus engaged him to write a " His- 
tory of Pomerania," ^furnishing him with money, books* 
and records,, and this was completed in two years, but it 
was long unpublished, the prince reserving it in manu- 
script, for the use of himself and his court. It appeared 
at last in 1727, 4to. He was still, however, attached to 
the religious principles in which he had been brought up, 
until in 1521 Luther's treatise on the Babylonish captivity 
was published. Even when he began first to read this, he 
declared the author to be " the most pestilent heretic that 
ever infested the church of Christ ;" but after a more at- 
tentive perusal, he candidly recanted this unfavourable 
opinion, in the following strong terms, " The whole 
world is blind, and this man alone sees the truth." It is* 
probable that be had communicated this discovery to bis 
'brethren, for we find that the abbot, two aged pastors of 
the church, and some other of the friars, began to be con- 
vinced of the errors of popery about the same time. Bu- 
genhagius now avowed the principles of the reformation so 
openly, that he found it necessary to leave Treptow, and 
being desirous of an interview with Luther, went to Wit- 
temberg, where he was chosen pastor of the reformed 
church. Here he constantly taught the doctrines of the 
reformation, both by preaching and writing, for thirty-six; 
years. He always opposed the violent and seditious prac- 
tices of Carlostadt, and lived on the most friendly terms, 
with Luther and Melancthon. At first he thought Luther 
bad been too violent in his answer to Henry VIII. of Eng- 
land, but he changed his opinion, and declared, that the: 
author had treated that monarch with too much lenity* 

His public services were not confined to Wittemberg* 
In 1522, he was requested to go to Hamburgh, to draw 
up for them certain doctrinal articles, the mode of church 
government, &c. and he also erected a school in. the monas- 
tery of St. John. In 1530. he performed the same services 
for the reformed church of Lubeck. . In 1537, he was soli* 



B U G E N B A <? I U S. &6j 

cited by- Christian king of Denmark to assist Ms majesty id 
promoting the refQrmation, and erecting schools in his domi- 
nions. All this he appears to have performed on an extensive 
pcale, for his biographers inform us that besides new mo- 
delling the church of Denmark, and substituting superior 
tendants for bishops, he appointed ministers in the king- 
doms of Denmark and Norway, to the number of twenjy- 
four thousand. He assisted Jikewise in 1542, in the ad- 
vancement of the reformation in the dukedom of Brunswick 
and other places. At length, after a life devoted to these 
objects, he died April 20, 1558. He wrote a " CoHMfterf- 
tary on the Psalms ;" annotations on St. Paul's Epistles ; 
a harmony of the Gospels, &c. and assisted Luther in 
translating the bible into German. He used to keep the 
.day on which it was finished as a festival, calling it the 
" Feast of the translation." His own works were princi- 
pally written ia Latin. * 

BULKLEY (Charles), a protestant dissenting minister, 
was born in London, Oct 18, 1719. His mother was the 
daughter, by a second wife, of the celebrated Matthew 
Henry. He was educated first at Chester, from whence 
he went to Dr. Doddridge's academy at Northampton iii 
1736, and commenced preacher in the summer of 1740, 
his first settlement being at Wei ford, in Northamptonshire. 
He appears to have afterwards remqyed to London, but 
quitted the presbyterian sect, was baptized by immersion, 
and joined the general baptists. He preached likewise at 
Colchester, but how long cannot be ascertained. In 1743, 
he was chosen minister of a meeting in White's alley, 
Moorfields. In 1745, this congregation removed to Bar- 
bican, fcnd in 1780 to Worship-street, Shoreditch, wbe*e 
it remained until his death April 15, 1797. Before this 
event his infirmities had unfitted him for public service ; 
yet at one period he must have enjoyed great popularity, 
as he was chosen to succeed Dr. James Foster, in the Old 
Jewry lecture. Besides several single sermons, preached 
on particular occasions, he published 1. " Discourses on 
several subjects," 1752. 2. "A Vindication of Lord 
Shaftesbury's writings," 1753. 3. " Notes on Lord Bo- 
lingbroke's Philosophical Writings," 1755, 8vo. 4. _" Ob- 
servations on Natural Religion and Christianity, candidly 
proposed in a Review of the Discourses lately published 

1 Melchior Adam.— Freheri Tbeatrum.— Miliwr's Ch. Hist, vol. V. App. p. 8. 

— Saxii Onoma&ticon, 



£62 B V L K L E Y. 

by the lord bishop of London, 1 ' 1 757. 5. " CEconomy of the 
Gospel/ 9 17<64, 4to. 6. " Discourses on the Parables and 
Miracles of Christ," 1770, 4 vols. 7. " Catechetical Ex- 
ercises," 1774. 8. " Preface to notes on the Bible," 1791, 
and after his death, " Notes on the Bible," 3 vols. 8vo. * 

BULKLEY (Peter), an English divine, was born at 
Woodhill, in Bedfordshire, 1582, and educated at St. 
John's college, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. 
He had an estate left to him by his father, whom he suc- 
ceeded in the living of Woodhill. Here he remained for 
twenty-one years, until he was silenced for non-conformity 
by archbishop Laud. On this he converted his estate into 
money, and went to New England in 1635, and carrying 
with him some planters, they settled at a place which they 
called Concord, and where they succeeded better than 
Mr. Bulkley did, who sunk his property in improvements. 
He died there March 9, 1658-9. His only publication 
was entitled " The Gospel Covenant opened," 165], 4to, 
which passed through several editions, and was one of the 
first books published in that country. l 

BULL (George), bishop of St. David's, was born 
March 25, 1634, in the parish of St. Cuthbert, at Wells 
in Somersetshsre. He was descended from an ancient and 
genteel family, seated at Shapwick in that county. Our 
prelate's father, Mr. George Bull, dedicated his son to the 
church from his infancy, having declared at the font, that 
he designed him for holy orders, but he died when George 
was but four years old, and left him under the care of 
guardians, with an estate of two hundred pounds per an- 
num. When he was fit to receive the first rudiments of 
learning, he was placed in a grammar-school at Wells, from 
whence he was soon removed to the free-school of Tiverton, 
in Devonshire, where he made a very quick progress in 
classical learning, and became qualified for the university 
at fourteen years of age. 

He was entered a commoner of Exeter- college, in 
Oxford, the 10th of July, 1648, under the tuition of Mr. 
Baldwin Ackland, and though he lost much time in the 
pursuit of pleasures and diversions, yet, by the help of 
logic, which he mastered with little labour, and a close 
way of, reasoning, which was natural to him, he soon 
gained the reputation of a smart disputant, and a* 

? Erant'0 Funeral Sermon, in Prot Dissenters Magazine, vol. IV. 
I Weal's Hist, Qf PwiMws, and Hilt, of New England, vol, I. p. 3Q3, 



BULL. 261 

such was taken notice of and encouraged by his su- 
periors, particularly Dr. Conant, rector of the college, 
and Dr. Prideaux, bishop of Worcester, who at that time 
resided in Oxford. He continued in Exeter-college till 
January, 1649, at which time having refused to take the 
oath to the Commonwealth of England, he retired with bit 
tutor, Air. Ackland, who had set him the example, to 
North- Cadbury, in Somersetshire, where he continued 
under the care of that good and able man, till he was 
about nineteen years of age. This retreat gave him an 
opportunity of frequent converse with one of his sisters, 
whose good sense, and pious admonitions, weaned him 
entirely from all youthful vanities, and influenced him to 
a serious prosecution of his Studies. And now, by the 
advice of his friends and guardians, he put himself under 
the care of Mr. William Thomas, rector of Ubley, in So* 
mersetshire, a puritan divine, in whose house he boarded, 
with some of his sisters, for the space of two years. To 
this gentleman's principles, however, he had no lasting at- 
tachment, and as he advanced in reading, he began to 
study Hooker, Hammond, Taylor, Episcopius, &c. with 
which his friend Mr. Samuel Thomas, the son of his bost^ 
supplied him, much against the old gentleman's will, who 
told his son that he would " corrupt Mr. Bull." Soon 
after he had left Mr. Thomas, he entertained thoughts of 
entering into holy orders, and for that purpose applied 
himself to Dr. Skinner, the ejected bishop of Oxford, by 
whom he was ordained deacon and priest in the same day, 
being at that time but twenty-one years of age, and con- 
sequently under the age prescribed by the canons, with 
which, however, in times of such difficulty and distress, 
it was thought fit to dispense. Not long after, he accepted 
the small benefice of St. George's, near Bristol, where, 
by his constant preaching twice e¥ery Sunday, the method 
he took in governing his parish, bis manner of performing 
divine service, his exemplary life and great charities, he 
entirely gained the affections of his flock, and was very 
instrumental in reforming his parish, which he found over- 
run with quakers and other sectarists. 

A little occurrence, soon after his coming to this living, 
contributed greatly to establish his reputation as a preacher. 
One Sunday, when he had begun his sermon, as he was 
turning over bis Bible to explain some texts of scripture 
which he had quoted, his notes, which were wrote on 



- 264 " BULL. 

several smfcll pieces of paper, flew out of his Bible into the 
jniddle of the church : many of. the congregation fell into 
laughter, concluding that their young preacher would be 
iion-plussed for want of materials ; but. some of the more 
sober and better-natured sort, gathered up the scattered ' 
ijotes, and carried them to him in the pulpit, Mr. Bull 
took them ; and perceiving that most of the audience, 
(consisting chiefly of sea- faring persons, were rather in- 
clined to triumph over him under that surprize, he clapped 
them into his book again, and shut it, and then, without 
referring any more to them, went on with the subject he 
bad begun* Another time, while he was preaching, a 
quaker came into the church, and in the middle of the 
sermon, cried out " George, come down, thou art a false 
prophet, and a hireling ;" whereupon the parishioners, who 
loved their minister exceedingly, fell upon the poor quaker" 
with such fury, as obliged Mr. Bull to come down out of 
the pulpit to quiet them, and to save him from the effects 
of their resentment ; after which he went up again, and 
finished his sermon. The prevailing spirit of those times 
fWould not admit of the public and regular use of the book 
of common-prayer; but Mr. Bull formed all his public 
-devotions out of the book of common prayer, and was 
commended as a person who prayed by the spirit, by many 
'who condemned the common-prayer as a beggarly element 
and carnal performance. A particular instance of this 
happened to him upon his being sent for to baptize the 
.child of a dissenter in his parish. Upon this occasion, he 
tnade use of the office of baptism as prescribed by the 
church of England, which he had got entirely by heart, 
and which he went through with so much readiness, gra- 
vity, and devotion, that the whole company were ex- 
tremely affected. After the ceremony, the father of the 
child returned him a great many thanks, intimating at the 
same time, with how much greater edification those 
prayed, who entirely depended upon the spirit of God for 
his assistance in their extempore effusions, than they did 
who tied themselves up to premeditated forms ; and that, 
if he had not made the sign of the cross, the badge of 
,popery, as he called it, nobody could have formed the 
least objection to his excellent prayers. Upon which Mr. 
Bull shewed him the office of baptism in the liturgy, 
wherein was contained every prayer he had used on that 
occasion ; which, with other arguments offered by Mr. 
Bull in favour of the cotnmon prayer, wrought so effec- 



BULL 265 

iuaUy upon the good old man, and his whole family, that 
from that time they became constant attendants <m the 
public service of the church. 

Whilst he remained minister of this parish, the provi- 
dence of God wonderfully interposed for the preservation 
of his life ; for his lodgings being near a powder-mill, Mr. 
Morgan, a gentleman of the parish, represented to him 
the danger of his situation, and at the same time invited 
him to his own house. Mr. Bull, at first, modestly de- 
clined the offer, but after some importunity accepted it ; 
and, not many days after his removal to Mr. Morgan's, the 
mill was blown up, ancf his apartment with it. In this part 
of his life he took a journey once a year to Oxford, where 
he stayed about two months, to enjoy the benefit of the 
public libraries. In his way to and from Oxford, he always 
paid a visit to sir William Masters, of Cirencester, by 
which means he contracted an intimacy with Mr. Alex- 
ander Gregory, the minister of the place, and after some 
time married Bridget, one of his daughters, on the 20th 
of May, 1658. The same year he was presented by the 
lady Pool, to the rectory of Suddington St. Mary, near 
Cirencester, in Gloucestershire. The next year, 1659, 
he was made privy to ,the design of a general insurrec- 
tion in favour of king Charles II. and several gentlemen 
of that neighbourhood who were in . the secret, chose 
his bouse at Suddington for one of the places of their 
meeting. Upon the restoration, Mr. Bull frequently 
preached for his father-in-law, Mr. Gregory, at Ci- 
rencester, where there was a large and populous con- 
gregation ; vand his sermons gave such general satisfaction, 
that, upon a vacancy, the people were .very solicitous to 
have procured for him the presentation ; but the largeness 
of the parish, and the great duty attending it, deterred 
him from consenting to the endeavours they were making 
for that purpose. In 1662, he was presented by the lord 
high-chancellor, the earl of Clarendon, to the vicarage of 
Suddington St. Peter, which lay contiguous to Suddington 
St. Mary, at the request of his diocesan Dr. Nicholson, 
bishop of Gloucester, both livings not exceeding 100/. a 
year. When Mr, Bull came first to the rectory of Sud- 
dington, he began to be more open in the use of the li- 
turgy of the church of England, though it was not yet 
restored by the return of the king ; for, being desired to 
marry a couple, he performed the ceremony, on a Sunday 
morning, in the face of the whole congregation, according 



266 



B U LL 



to the form prescribed by the book of common -prayer. 
He took the same method in governing these parishes, as 
in that of St. George's, and with the same success ; ap- 
plying himself with great diligence to the discharge of his 
pastoral functions, and setting the people an admirable 
example in the government and oeconomy of his own 
family *. During his residence here, he had an opportu- 
nity of confirming two ladies of quality in the protestant 
communion, who were reduced to a wavering state of mind 
by the arts and subtleties of the Romish missionaries. The 
only dissenters he had in his parish were quakers ; whose 
extravagances often gave him no small uneasiness. In 
this part of bis life, Mr. Bull prosecuted his studies with 
great application, and composed most of his works during 
the twenty-seven years that he was rector of Suddington. 
Several tracts, indeed, which cost him much pains, are en- 
tirely lost, through his own neglect in preserving them ; 
particularly a treatise on the posture used by the ancient 
Christians in receiving the Eucharist; a letter to Dr. Pear- 
son concerning the genuineness of St. Ignatius's epistles; a 
long one to Mr. Glanvil, formerly minister of Bath, con- 
cerning the eternity of future punishments ; and another, 
on the subject of papery, to a person, of very great quality. 
In 1669, he published his Apostolical Harmony, with a 
view to settle the peace of the church,- upon a point of the 
utmost importance to all its members ; and be dedicated it 
to Dr. William Nicholson, bishop of Gloucester. This 
performance was greatly disliked, at first, by many of the 
clergy, and others, on account of the author's departing 
therein from the private opinions of some doctors of the 
church, and his jmanner of reconciling the two apostles St. 
Paul and St. James, as to the doctrine of justification. It 
was particularly opposed by Dr. Morley, bishop of Win- 



* Every morning and evening tbe 
family were called to prayers, which 
were either those composed by bishop 
Taylor, or takeu out of " The Com- 
mon Prayer book the best Compa- 
nion." A portion of Scripture was 
read at the same time, with the addi- 
tion, on Sunday evenings, of a chapter 
out of the " Whole Duty of Man." If 
any of his servants could not read, be 
would assign one of the family to be 
their teacher; and no neglect of duty 
in them offended him so much as their 
Absence from the family devotions. Tbe 



constant frame and temper of his mind 
was so truly devout, that he would fre- 
quently in the day-time, as occasion 
offered, use short prayers and ejacula- 
tions ; and when he was sitting in si- 
lence in his family, and they, as be 
thought, intent upon other matters, be 
would often with an inexpressible air 
of great seriousness, lift up his hands 
and eyes to heaven, and sometimes 
drop tears. He was very frequent and 
earnest in his private devotions, of 
which singing psalms always made s> 
part. 



s 



BULL. 2CT 

Chester; Dr. Barlow, Margaret-professor of divinity at Ox- 
ford ; Mr. Charles Gataker, a presbyterian divine; Mr. Jo- 
seph Truman, a non-conformist minister ; Dr. Tally, prin- 
cipal of St. Ediriund's-hall ; Mr. John Tombes, a famous 
anabaptist preacher ; Dr. Lewis Du Moulin, an indepen- 
dent ; and by M. De Marets, a French writer, who tells 
us, " that the author, though a professed priest of the 
church of England, was more addicted to the papists, re- 
monstrants, and Socinians, than to the orthodox party." 
Towards the end of 1675, Mr. Bull published his " Exa- 
men Censurae," &c. in answer to Mr. Gataker, and his 
tt Apologia pro Harmonia," &c. in reply to Dr. Tully. Mr. 
Bull's notion on this subject was " That good works, which 
proceed from faith, and are conjoined with faith, are a 
necessary condition required from us by God, to the end 
that by the new and evangelical covenant, obtained by 
and sealed in the blood of Christ the Mediator of it, we 
may be justified according to his free and unmerited 
grace." In this doctrine, and throughout the whole book, 
Mr. .Bull absolutely excludes all pretensions to merit on 
the part of men ; but the work nevertheless excited the 
jealousy of many able divines both in the church and 
among the dissenters, as appears from the above list. 
About three years after, he was promoted by the earl of 
Nottingham, then lord chancellor, to a prebend in the 
church of Gloucester, in which he was installed the 9th of 
October, 1678. In 1680, he finished his "Defence of 
the Nicene Faith," of which he had given a hint five years- 
before in his Apology. This performance, which is levelled 
against the Arians and Socinians on one hand, and the 
Tritheists and Sabellians on the other, was received with 
universal applause, and its fame spread into foreign coun- 
tries, where it was highly esteemed by the best judges of 
antiquity, though of different persuasions. Five years after 
its publication, the author was presented, by Philip Shep- 
pard, esq. to the rectory of Avening in Gloucestershire, a 
very large parish, and worth two hundred pounds per an- 
num. The people of this parish, being many of them 
very dissolute and immoral, and many more, disaffected to 
the church of England, gave him for some time great trou- 
ble and uneasiness ; but, by his prudent conduct and dili- 
gent discharge of his duty, he at last got the better of their 
prejudices, and converted their dislike iuto the most cor- 
dial love and affection towards him. He had not been 



268 BULL. 

long at Averring, before he was promoted, by archbishop 
Sancroft, to the archdeaconry of LandafF, in which he was 
installed the 20th of June, 1686. He was invited soon 
after to Oxford, where the degree of doctor in divinity- 
was conferred upon him by that university, without the 
payment of the usual fees, in consideration of the great 
and eminent services he had done the church. During the 
reign of James II. the doctor preached very warmly against 
popery, with which the nation was then threatened. Some 
-time after the revolution, he was put into the commission 
of the peace, and continued in it, with some little inter- 
ruption, till he was made a bishop. In 1694, whilst he 
continued rector of Avening, he published his " Judicium 
Ecclesise Catholicae, &c." in defence of the " Anathema,** 
as his former book had been of the Faith, decreed by the 
first council of Nice*. The last treatise which Dr. Bull 
wrote, was his " Primitive Apostolical Tradition," &c. 
against Daniel Zwicker, a Prussian. All Dr. Bull's Latin 
works, which he had published by himself at different times, 
were collected together, and printed in T703, in one vo- 
lume in folio, under the care and inspection of Dr. John 
Ernest Grabe, the author's age and infirmities disabling 
him from undertaking this edition. The ingenious editor 

* Mr. Nelson, soon after the publi- others assembled in the samo church, 

cation of this work, sent it as a present can continue a moment without ac- 

to Mr. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux. That knowledging her. Or, let him tell me, 

prelate communicated it to several sir, what he means by the term catholic 

other, French bishops, the result of church? Is it the church of Rome, ami 

which was, that Mr. Nelson was desired those that adhere to her ? Is it the 

in a letter from the bishop of Meaux, church of England ? Is it a confused 

not only to return Dr. Bull his humble heap of societies, separated the one 

thanks, but the unfeigned congratula- from the other ? And how can they be 

ti«as also of the. whole clergy of France, that kingdom of Christ, not divided, 

then assembled at St, Germain's, for against itself, and which shall never 

the great service he had done to the perish ? It would be a great satisfac-* 

catholic church, in so well defending tion to me to receive some answer up- 

her determination, concerning tbe ne- on this subject, that might explain the 

cessity of believing the divinity of tbe opinion of so weighty and solid an 

Son of Cod. In that letter the bishop author." Dr. Bull answered the queries 

of Meaux expresses himself in the fol- proposed in this letter ; but just as 

.lowing terms : " Dr. Bull's perform- his answer came to Mr. Nelson's bands, 

ance is admirable, the matter he treats the bishop died. However, Dr. Bull's 

of could not be explained with greater answer was published, and a second 

learning and judgment; but there is edition printed at London, 1707, in 

one thing I wonder at, which is, that 12 mo, under the following title: "The 

so great a man, who speaks so advan- corruptions of the church of Rome, in 

tageouoly of tbe church, of salvation relation to ecclesiastical government, 

which is obtained only in unity 'with the rule of faith, and form of divine 

her, and of the infallible assistance of worship: In answer to the bishop of 

the Holy Ghost in the council of Nice, Meaux' s queries." 
which infers the same assistance for all 



'BULL. 26i 

illustrated the work with many learned annotations, and 
ushered it into the world with an excellent preface. Dr» 
Bull was in the seventy-first year of his age, when he was 
acquainted with her majesty's gracious intention of con- 
ferring on him the bishopric of St. David's; which promo- 
tion he at first declined, on account of his ill state of health 
and advanced years ; but, by the impprtunity of his friends, 
and strong solicitations from the governors of the church, 
he was at last prevailed upon to accept it, and was accord- 
ingly consecrated in Lambeth-chapel, the 29th of April, 
1705. Two years after, he lost his eldest son, Mr. George 
Bull, who died of the small-pox the 1 1th of May, 1707, ia 
the thirty-seventh year of his age. Our prelate took his 
seat in the house of lords in that memorable session, when 
the bill passed for the union of the two kingdoms, and 
spoke in a debate which happened upon that occasion, in 
favour of the church of England. About July after his. 
consecration, he went into his diocese, and was received 
with all imaginable demonstrations of respect by the gen* 
try and clergy. ,The episcopal palace at Aberguilly being, 
much out of repair, he chose the town of Brecknock for 
the place of his residence ; but was obliged, about half & 
year before his death, to remove from thence to Aber- 
marless, for the benefit of a freer air- He resided con- 
stantly in his diocese, and carefully discharged all the epis- 
copal functions. Though bishop Bull was a great admirer 
of our ecclesiastical constitution, yet he would often la- 
ment the distressed state of the church of England, chiefly 
owing to the decay of ancient discipline, and the great 
number of lay-impropriations, which he considered as a 
species of sacrilege, and insinuated that he had known in- 
stances of its being punished by the secret curse which 
hangs over sacrilegious persons. Some time before his 
last sickness, he entertained thoughts of addressing a cir- 
cular letter to all his clergy ; and, after his death, there was 
found among his papers one drawn Up to that purpose. He 
bad greatly impaired his health, by too intense and unsea- 
sonable an application to his studies, and, on the 27th of 
September, 1709, was taken with a violent fit of coughing, 
which brought on a spitting of blood. About the begin- 
ning of February following, he was seized with a distem- 
per, supposed to be an ulcer, or what they call the inward 
piles; of which he died the 1 7th of the same month, and 



2*0 BULL. 

was buried, about a week after his death, at Brecknock, 
leaving behind him but two children out of eleven. 

He was tall of stature, and in his younger years thin and 
pale, but fuller and more sanguine in the middle and lat-. 
ter part of his age ; his sight quick and strong, and hid 
constitution firm and vigorous, till indefatigable reading, 
and nocturnal studies, to which he was very much ad-: 
dieted, had first impaired, and at length quite extin- 
guished the one, and subjected the other to many infir- 
mities ; for his sight failed him entirely, and his strength 
to a great degree, some years before he died. But what- 
ever other bodily indispositions he contracted, . by intense 
thinking, and a sedentary life, his head was always free, 
and remained unaffected to the last. As to the tempera- 
ture and complexion of his body, that of melancholy 
seemed to prevail, but never so far as to indispose his mind 
for study and conversation. The vivacity of his natural 
temper exposed him to sharp and sudden fits of anger, 
which were but of short continuance, and sufficiently 
atoned for by the goodness and tenderness of his nature 
towards all his domestics. He had a firmness and con- 
stancy of mind which made him not easily moved when he 
had once fixed his purposes and resolutions. He had early 
a true sense of feligion ; and though he made a short ex- 
cursion into the paths of vanity, yet he was entirely re- 
covered a considerable time before he entered into holy 
orders. His great learning was tempered with that modest 
and humble opinion of it, that it thereby shone with 
greater lustre. His actions were no less instructive than 
his conversation ; for his exact knowledge of the holy 
scriptures, and of the writings of the primitive fathers of 
the church, had so effectual an influence upon his practice, 
that it was indeed a fair, entire, and beautiful image of the 
prudence and probity, simplicity and benignity, humility 
and charity, purity and piety, of the primitive Christians. 
During his sickness, his admirable patience under ex- 
quisite pains, and his continual prayers, made it evident 
that his mind was much fuller of God than of his illness ; 
and he entertained those that attended him with such 
beautiful and lively descriptions of religion and another 
world, as if he had a much clearer view than ordinary of 
what he believed. 
Bishop Bull's Sermons, and the larger discourses, were 



BULL. 271 

published in 1713, 3 vols. 8vo, by Robert Nelson, esq. 
with a Life, occupy ing a fourth volume, which was also 
published separately. Some of the sermons are on curious 
subjects, and seem rather ingenious than edifying, but as 
an assertor of the doctrine of the Trinity, bishop Bull must 
be allowed to rank among the ablest divines of the last age. l 
BULL (John), a celebrated musician, and doctor in 
that faculty, was descended from a family of that name in 
Somersetshire, and born about the year 1563. Having 
discovered an excellent natural genius for music, he was 
educated in that science, when very young, under Mr. 
William Blitheman, an eminent master, and organist of 
the chapel to queen Elizabeth.. On the 9th of July 1586 
he was admitted bachelor of music at Oxford, having ex- 
ercised that art fourteen years ; and, we are told, he would 
have proceeded in that university " had he not met with 
clowns and rigid puritans there, that could not endure 
church-music." Some time after, he was created doctor 
of music at Cambridge; but in what year is uncertain, 
there being a deficiency in the register. In 1691 he was 
appointed organist of the Queen's chapel, in the room of 
Mr. Blitheman, deceased ; and on the 7th of July, the 
year following, he was incorporated doctor of music at 
Oxford. He was greatly admired for his fine hand on the 
organ, as well as for his compositions ; several of which 
have been long since published in musical collections, 
besides a large number in manuscript, that made a part of 
the curious and valuable collection of music lately reposited 
in the library of Dr. Pepusch. Upon the establishment of, 
Gresham-college, Dr. Bull was chosen the first professor 
of music there, about the beginning of March 1596, 
through the recommendation of queen Elizabeth ; and not 
being able to speak in Latin, he was permitted to deliver 
his lectures altogether in English; which practice, so far 
as appears, has been ever since continued, though the 
professors of that science have often been men of learning. 
In 1601, his health being impaired, so that he was un- 
able to perform the duty of his place, he went to travel, 
having obtained leave to substitute, as his deputy, Mr. 
Thomas Birde, son of Mr. William Birde, one of the gen- 
tlemen of her majesty's chapel. He continued abroad 
above a year. After the death of queen Elizabeth, our 

» JUfr, by NeUon.— Bio* Brit. 



5t2 BULL. 

professor became chief organist to king James I. and De- t 
cember the 20th, the same year, he resigned his profes- 
sorship of Gresham-college ; but for what reason is not % 
known. In 1613 he again left England, induced, pro-, 
bably, by the declining reputation of church-music, which, 
at this time had not that regard paid to it, that had been' 
formerly. He went directly into the Netherlands, where, 
about Michaelmas, the same year, he was received into the 
service of the archduke ; and Mr. Wood says he died at 
Hamburgh, or (as others, who remember him, have said) . 
at Lujbeck. His picture is yet preserved in the music- 
school at Oxford, among other famous professors of that 
science, which hang round the room. 

Ward has given a long list of bis compositions in ma- 
nuscript; but the only works in print are his lessons in 
•' the collection entitled " Parthenia," the first music that, 
ever was printed for the virginals. He appears from some 
lesspns in this work, to have possessed a powet of execu- 
tion on the harpsichord far beyond what'is generally con- 
ceived of the masters of that time. But Dr. Burney, who 
has entered very largely into the character of his music, 
seems to think that it evinces more labour than genius, and .. 
that the great difficulty of performing it is poorly recom-. 
pensed by the effect produced. x 

BULLEN. SeeBOLEYNE. 

BULLER (Sir Francis), bart. a judge of the court of 
kingVbench and common-pleas, the soil of James Buller, 
esq. member of parliament for the county of Cornwall, by 
Jane, his second wife, one of the daughters of Allen earl • 
Bathurst, was born in 1745, and educated at a private 
school in the west of England. After this he removed to 
London, and was admitted of the Inner Temple, Feb. 1763, 
and became a pupil of sir William Ashurst, who was at 
that time a very eminent special-pleader, but whom, it . 
has been thought, he excelled. He was always ranked 
among the most eminent of the profession in this branch, 
and his business, as a common-law draughtsman, was im- 
mediate, and immense. His practice also tit the bar, to 
which he was called by the honourable society of the 
Middle Temple in Easter Term, 1772, was at first con- 
siderable, and in a very short period, became. equal to . 

*— * 

1 Biog. Brit.— Wood's Fasti, vok I.— Burney "and Hawkins's Hist, of Muiic 
—Ward's Gresham Professors. 



B U L L E R, 278 

■ * 

that of almost any of his brethren. Devoting himself en* 
tirely to it, he never came into parliament On Nov. 24, 
1777, he was appointed king's-counsel, and on the 27th 
of the same month, second judge of the Chester circuit. 
In Easter term, May 6, 1778, by the patronage of lord 
Mansfield, who bad a high opinion of his talents, he was 
made a judge of the king's-bench, in the room of sir 
Richard Aston. During the indisposition of lord Mans-r 
field, for the last three or four years that he held the office 
of chief justice, sir Francis Buller executed almost all the 
business at the sittings at nisi prius, with great ability, 
and lord Mansfield left him 2000/. in his will, which, it is 
said, Mr, justice Buller declined receiving of his lordship, 
when offered as a compensation for his trouble. On th$ 
resignation of lord Mansfield, his expectations were di- 
rected to the succession to the high office so long and 
ably filled by that venerable lawyer, but, for various rea* 
sons, sir Lloyd Kenyon was preferred. In 1794, in con- 
sequence of his declining state of health, which rendered 
him unequal to the laborious duties of that court, he was, 
on the death of judge Gould, removed to the court of 
common-pleas, but his health still continuing to decay, he 
was about to have obtained his majesty's leave to resign, 
when he died suddenly, at his house in Bedford-square, 
June 4, 1800, and was interred in a vault in St. Andrew's 
burying-ground. He was created a baronet in 1789, and 
was succeeded in titles and estate by his son sir F. Buller 
Yarde, which last name he took for an estate. Sir Francis 
Buller was allowed to be ably and deeply versed in the 
law, and was certainly more distinguished for substantial 
than showy talents. His eloquence at the bar was seldom 
admired, but his addresses from the bench were perspi- 
cuous, dignified, and logical. He possessed great quick- 
ness of perception, saw the consequences of a fact, and 
the drift of an argument at its first opening, and could 
immediately reply to an unforeseen objection, but was on 
some occasions thought rather hasty. He seldom, how- 
ever, formed his opinions without due consideration, 
and was particularly tenacious of what he had thus con- 
sidered. 

As a writer he has conferred some obligations on the pro- 
fession. His " Introduction to the law relative to Trials at 
Nisi Prius," 1772, 4 to, has passed through six editions, with 

Vol. VII. T 



274 B U L L E R. 

occasional corrections and additions, the last of which was 
printed in 1793, and is considered as a standard work. * 

BULLET (John Baptist), a learned French writer, 
member of the academies of Besan£on, Lyons, and Dijon, 
and a corresponding member of the academy of inscrip- 
tions, was born ,in 1699, and was professor of divinity in 
the university of BeSan^on from the year 1728 ; and after- 
wards dean. He had a surprising memory, and although 
devoted to controversial studies, was of a mild and affable 
disposition. His works are of two kinds ; some turning 
on religious matters, and otheTs on literary inquiry. They 
are all accurate and solid ; but we are not to look in them 
for ^elegance of style. The principal of them are : I . "His- 
tory of the establishment of Christianity, taken from Jewish 
and Pagan authors alone," 1764, 4to. 2. " The exist- 
ence of God demonstrated by nature," 2 vols. 8vo. 3. 
u Answer to some objections of unbelievers to the Bible,'* 
3 vols. 12mo. 4. "De apostolica ecclesiae Gallicanae ori- 
gine," 1752, 12mo. 5. " Memoirs on the Celtic tongue,'* 
1754-59, 3 vols. fol. 6. " Researches into the history of 
Cards," 1757, 8vo. 7. " A dissertation on the history of 
France," 1757, 8vo. 

Of these works, the first was translated into English, and 
published in 1776, under the title of "The History, &c. 
translated by William Salisbury, B. D. with notes by the 
translator, and some strictures on Mr. Gibbon's account 
of Christianity, and its first teachers," 8vo. This is a 
very valuable work, but the original was long a scarce one 
in this country. Dr. Lardner, before he published the 
third volume of his " Collection of Testimonies," endea- 
voured to procure a copy, but without success, and was 
therefore obliged to publish his last volume without being 
able to make any use of it. Dr. Lardner's work is un-. 
doubtetily more complete and perfect, but the present* 
contains within a narrow compass, and therefore more 
useful to the general reader, a clear and distinct view o£ 
the facts on which Christianity is founded, during the first 
three centuries, which are by far the most important. 
There are also in professor Bullet's work some useful 
things which are not in Lardner ; particularly a vindica- 
tion of certain contested proofs; an argument in favour of 

J Gent 3Vfa£. 1800. — Strictures on Eminent Lawyers, 1 790, 8vo. — Bridjraan's 
Legal Bibliography, 



BULLET. 275 

the Christian cause, built upon the supposed silence of 
Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, &c. His plan is also 
different from Lardner's, forming a connected discourse, 
without interruption, and therefore probably better suited 
to a numerous class of readers. 

Our learned professor's " Researches into the history, of 
Cards" is at least amusing; but his " Memoires sur la 
langae Celtique" contributed most to his reputation as a 
scholar of profound research. In these he has endeavoured 
to prove that all Europeans are descended from one com- 
mon origin, and, consequently, now speak only different 
dialects of the same language. In this investigation an 
immense number of books and MSS. appear to have been 
consulted, and he made some progress in all the languages 
of the earth, and had recourse to every living and dead 
tongue, where the smallest vestiges of the Celtic were to 
be found. In his dissertations on different subjects of the 
history of France are many curious inquiries. 1 

BULLEYN (William), a learned English physician 
and botanist, was descended from an ancient family, and 
born in the isle of Ely, about the beginning of Henry the 
Eighth's reign. He was bred up at Cambridge, as some 
say, at Oxford according to others ; but probably both 
those nurseries of learning had a share in his education. 
We know, however, but little of his personal history, 
though he was famous in his profession, and a member of 
the college of physicians in London, except what we are 
able to collect from his works. Tanner says, that he was 
a divine as well as a physician ; that he wrote a book 
against transubstantiation ; and that in June 1550 he was 
inducted into the rectory of Blaxhall, in Suffolk, which 
.be resigned in November 1554. From bis works we learn 
that he had been a traveller over several parts of Germany, 
Scotland, and especially England ; and he seems to have 
made it his business to acquaint himself with the natural 
history of each place, and with the products of its soil* 
It appears, however, that he was more permanently settled 
at Durham, where he practised physic with great repu- 
tation ; and, among others of the most eminent inhabitants, 
was in great favour with sir Thomas Hilton, knight, baron 
of Hilton, to whom he dedicated a book in the last year 
ef queen Mary's reign. In 1560, he went to London, 

I Diet. Hist.— Month. Rer. to!. LVIl. 

T 2 



276 BULLEYN. 

where, to bis infinite surprise, he found himself accused 
by Mr. William Hilton of Biddick, of having murdered his 
brother, the baron aforesaid ; who really died among his 
own friends of a malignant fever. The innocent doctor 
was easily cleared, yet his enemy hired some ruffians to 
assassinate him, and when disappointed in this, arrested 
Dr. Bulleyn in an action, and confined him in prison a 
long time ; where he wrote some of his medical treatises. 
He was a very learned, experienced, and able physician. 
He was very intimate with the works of the ancient phy- 
sicians and, naturalists, both Greek, Roman, and Arabian. 
He was also a man of probity and piety, and though he 

' lived in the times of popery, does not appear to have been 
tainted with its principles. He died Jan. 7, 157€, and 
.was buried in the same grave with his brother Richard 
Bulleyn, a divine, who died thirteen years before, in the 
church of St. Giles^ Cripplegate. There is an inscription 
on their tomb, with some Latin verses, in which they are 

. .celebrated as men famous for their learning and piety. Of 
Dr. Bulleyn particularly it is said, that he was always as 
ready to accommodate the poor as the rich, with medi- 
cines for the relief of their distempers. There is a profile 
.of Bulleyn, with a long beard, before his "Government 
of Health, 1 ' and a whole-length of him. in wood, prefixed 
ta his " Bulwarke of defence." He was an ancestor of the 
late Dr. Stukeley, who, in 1722, was at,the expeoce of 
having a small head of him engraved.' 

He wrote, 1. "The Government of Health," 1558, 8 vo v 
2. M Regimen against the Pleurisy/ 1 1562, 8vo. 3. "Bul- 
wark of defence against all sickness, soreness, and wounds, 
that daily assault mankind, 1 ' &c. 1562, folio. This work 
consists of, first, The book of compounds, with a table of 
their names, and the apothecaries rules or terms; se- 
condly, The book of the use of sick men and medicines. 
These are both composed in dialogues between Sickness 
and Health. Then follows, thirdly, The book of simples, 
being an Herbal in the form of a dialogue ; at the end of 
which are the wooden cuts of some plants, and of some 
iimbecks or stills ; and, fourthly, a dialogue between Sore- 

. xiess and Chirurgery) concerning . impostumations and 
wounds, and their causes and cures. This tract has three 

. .wooden cuts in it ; one representing a man's body on the. 
forepart full of sores and swellings; the other, in like 
manner* behind J the third is also a human figure, in which 



BULLEYN. *X7 

the veins ate seen directed to, and named, which are to be 
opened in phlebotomy. 4. A dialogue both pleasant and 
pitiful, wherein is shewed a godly regimen against the 
plague, with consolations and comfort against death, 1664, 
8vo. Some other pieces of a smaller nature are ascribed 
to Dr. Bulleyn, but of very little consequence. 

Dr. Pulteney is of opinion that Bulleyn's specific know* 
ledge of Botany seems to have been but slender ; but his 
zeal for the promotion of the useful arts of gardening, the 
general culture of the land, and the commercial interests of 
the kingdom, deserve the highest praise, and for the in- 
formation he has left of these affairs, in his own time, pos- 
terity owe him acknowledgements. His travels, and the 
great attention he had paid to the native productions of bis 
own country, had given him a comprehensive view of the 
natural fertility of the soil and climate of England; which, 
'from the tenour of his writings, seems to have been, at 
that time, by some people much depreciated. He op- 
poses this idea with patriotic zeal and concern, and alleges 
various examples to prove, that we had excellent apples, 
pears, plums, cherries, and hops, of our own growth, 
before the importation of these articles into England by 
the London and Kentish gardeners, but tbat the culture of 
them had been greatly neglected. ' 

BULLIALDUS, or BOULLIAU (Ismael), a celebrated 
astronomer and scholar, was born of protestant parents, at 
Houdun in France, September the 28th, 1605 ; and hav- 
ing finished his studies in philosophy at Paris, and in. civil 
law at Poictiers, he applied to mathematics, theology, sa- 
cred and profane history, and civil law, with such assi- 
duity, that he became eminent in each of these depart- 
» ments, and acquired the reputation of an universal genius. 
As he had travelled for his improvement into Italy, Ger- 
many, Poland, and the Levant, he formed an extensive 
acquaintance with men of letters, and maintained a cor- 
respondence with the most distinguished persons of his 
time. Although he had been educated a protestant, he 
changed his profession at the age of 27 years, and became 
a catholic priest. His life was prolonged to his 89th year ; 
and having retired to the abbey of St. Victor at Paris in 
1689; he died there November the 25th, 1694. Besides 
his pieces concerning ecclesiastical rights, which excited 

. * Biog. Brit— Tanner.— Ath. Ox. I— Pulteney'g Sketches.— Aikia't Biogra- 
phical Memoirs of Medicine, 8vo. p. 142, fee. 



27S BULLIALDUS. 

attention, and the history of Ducas, printed at the Louvre, 
in 1649, in the original Greek, with a Latin version and 
notes, he was the author of several other works, chiefly 
mathematical and philosophical. His " Treatise on the 
Nature of Light" was published in 1638; and his work' 
entitled, " Philolaus, sive de vero Systema Mundi," or his 
true system of the world, according to Philolaus, an an- 
cient philosopher and astronomer, in the* same year, and 
republished in 1645, under the title of " Astronomia Phi- 
lolaica," grounded upon the hypothesis of the earth's mo- 
tion, and the elliptical orbit described by the planet's mo- 
tion about a cone. To which he added tables entitled 
" Tabulae Philolaicse :" a work which Riccioli says ought 
to be attentively read by all students of astronomy. — He 
considered the hypothesis, or approximation of bishop 
Ward, and found it not to agree with the planet Mars ; 
and shewed in his defence of the Philolaic astronomy 
against the bishop, that from four observations made by 
Tycho on the planet Mars, that planet in the first and third 
quarters of the mean anomaly, was more forward than it 
ought to be according to Ward's hypothesis ; but in the 2d 
and 4th quadrant of the same, the planet was not so far 
advanced as that hypothesis required. He therefore set 
about a correction of the bishop's hypothesis, and made it 
to answer more exactly to the orbits of the planets, which 
Were' most eccentric, and introduced what is called by 
Street, in his ^ Caroline Tables," the Variation : for these 
tables were calculated from this correction of Bulliaklus, 
and exceeded all in exactness that went before. This cor- 
rection is, in the judgment of Dr. Gregory, a very happy 
one, if it be not set above its due place ; and be accounted 
no more than a correction of an approximation to the true 
system : For by this 'means we are enabled to gather the 
coequate anomaly a priori and directly from the mean, and 
the observations are well enough answered at the same 
time; which, in ,Mercator's opinion, no one had effected 
before. — It' is remarkable that the ellipsis which he has 
chosen for a planet's motion, is such a one as, if cut out of 
a cone, will have the axis of the cone passing through one 
©f its foci, viz. that next the aphelion. 

In 1657, was published his treatise " De Lineis Spiral!- 
bus, Exerc. Geom. & Astron." Paris, 4to. — In 1682 came 
out at Paris, in folio, his large work entitled, " Opus no- 
vum ad Arithmeticam Infinitorum :" a work which is a dif- 



B U L L IALDUS. 2J» 

1 

fuse amplification of Dr. Wallis's Arithmetic of Infinites, 
and which Wallis treatSvof particularly in the 80th chapter 
of im historical treatise of Algebra. — He wrote also two 
admonitions to astronomers. The first, concerning a new 
star in the neck of the Whale, appearing at some times, 
and disappearing at others. The 2d, concerning a nebu- 
lous star in the northern part of Andromeda's girdle, not 
discovered by any of the ancients. This star also appeared 
and disappeared by turns. And as these phenomena ap* 
peared new and surprizing, he strongly recommended the 
observing them to all that might be curious in astronomy.* 
BULLINGER (Henry), one of the reformers, was borri 
at Bremgarten, a village near Zurich, , in : Switzerland^ 
July 18, 1504. At the age of twelve be was sent by, his 
father to Emmeric, to be instructed in grammar-learnings 
and here he remained three years, during which his father,! 
to make him feel for the distresses of others, and be mor6 
frugal and modest in bis dress, and temperate, ia hi£ dietj 
withdrew that money with which he was wont to supply: 
him; so that Bullinger was forced, according, to tbe.cus-* 
torn of those times, to subsist on the alms be got ; by sing4 
ing from door to door. While here, he w#s, strongly ink 
cloned to enter among the Carthusians, but was dissuaded 
from it by an elder brother. At, fifteen years of age het 
was sent to Cologn, where he studied logic, and commenced' 
B. A. at sixteen years old; He afterwards betook himselfi 
to the study of divinity and canon law, and to the readingr 
of the fathers, and conceived such a dislike to the schools 
divines, as in 1520, to write some dialogues against, thera^ 
and about the same time he began to see the errors of »the, 
church of Rome, from which, however, he did not imme-r 
diately separate. In 1.522, he commenced M, A, and. re*! 
turning home, he spent a year in his father's hpuss, wholly 
employing himself. in his studies., /The year after, he.wftSi 
called by the, abbot of La Ch&pelle, a Cjsterciau abbey/ 
near Zurich, to teach in that jplftce,; which he did wjthgresfc 
reputation for. four yearfc, and wap. ; very jtn$tvptf*cfn til iaJ 
causing the reformation of Zuingfcus.tQ be r^wed. - ilt,fei 
very remarkable that while thus! torching find. changing shfa 
sentiments of the Cisterciaps uv(bi|3-p\ac5, it dqestiQtj apre 
pear that he was a cl§r.gy«Hfian injtbfc cop&munion &f t?he &£& 

of Rome, nor ; that he had .a^M share in the rpojjiias&fc 

■ ■ ■ • * , i •> 

1 Moreri, art. Bouillaud.— Martin's Biographia,Philo80phi^a.-r-Hutton r sDuJ. 



s 



280 ' B If L LI N G E ft. 

observances of the house. Zuinglius, assisted by Oecolam~ 
padius. and Bucer, had established the reformed doctrines 
-at Zurich in 1523 ; and in 1527, Bullinger attended the 
lectures of Zuinglius in that city, for some months, re~ 
aiewed his acquaintance with Greek, and began the study 
of Hebrew. He preached also publicly by a licence from 
the synod, and accompanied Zuinglius at the famous dis- 
putation held at Bern in 1528* The year following, he' 
Was called to be minister of the protestant church, in his 
native place at Bremgarten, and married a wife, wha 
brought him six sons and five daughters, and died in 1 5.64. 
He met with great opposition from the papists and anabap- 
tists in his parish, but disputed publicly, and wrote several 
books against them. The victory gained by the Romish 
cantons over the protestants in a battle fought 1531, forced 
him, together with his father, brother, and colleague, to 
fly to Zurich, where he was chosen pastor in the room of 
Zuinglius, slain in the late battle. He was also employed 
in several ecclesiastical negociations, with a view to recon- 
cile the Zuiuglians and Lutherans, and to reply to the 
harsh censures which were published by Luther against the 
doctrine of the Swiss churches respecting the sacrament* 
In 1549, he concurred with Calvin in drawing up a formu- 
lary, expressing the conformity of belief which subsisted 
between the churches of Zurich and Geneva, and intended 
on the part of Calvin, for obviating any suspicions that he 
inclined to the opiniou of Luther with respect to the sacra- 
ment. ". He~ greatly assisted the English divkies who fled 
into .Switzerland from the persecution raised in England 
by queen JMary, and ably confuted the pope's bull excom- 
municating queen Elizabeth. The magistrates of Zurich, 
by his jpersuasion, erected a new college in 1538. He 
ajso prevailed with them to erect, in a place that had for- 
merly been a nunnery, a new school, in which fifteen 
ypuths were trained up under an able master, and supplied , 
with food, raiment, and other necessaries. In 1549, he 
by his influence hindered the Swiss from renewing their 
league with Henry II. of France; representing to them, . 
that it was neither just nor lawful for a man to suffer him- 
artf to be hired to shed another man's blood, from whom 
himself had never received any injury. In 1551 he wrote 
&b'ook, the purport of which was to shew, that the council 
of Trent had no other design than to oppress theprofessors 
of sound religion ; and, therefore, that the cantons should 



BUL LI NGEH m 

pky no regard to the invitations of the pope, which soli- 
cited their sending deputies to that council. In 1 56 1 hd 
feominenced a controversy with Brehtius concerning the 
ubiquity of the body of Christ, zealously maintained by 
Brentius, and as vehemently opposed by BuUinger, which 
continued till his death, on the 17th of September, 1575. 
His funeral oration was pronounced by John Stukius, and 
his life was written by Josias Simler (who had married one 
of his daughters), and was published at Zurich in 1575, 
4to, with Stukius's oration, and the poetical tributes of 
many eminent men of his time. Bullinger's printed works 
are very numerous, doctrinal, practical, and controversial, 
but no collection has ever been made of them. His high 
reputation in England, during the progress of the reform- 
ation, occasioned the following to be either translated into 
English, or published here : 1. " A hundred Sermons 
tfpon the Apocalypse," 1561, 4to. 2. "Bullae papistic® 
contra reginarn Elteabetham, refutatio," 1571, 4to. 3. 
" The Judgment of Bullinger, declaring it to be law- 
ful for the ministers of the church of England to wear the 
apparel prescribed by the laws, &c." Eng. and Lat. 1566, 
8vo. 4. "Twenty-six Sermons on Jeremiah,' 9 1583. 5. 
"•An epistle on the Mass, with one of Calvin's," 1548, 8vo. 
G. " A treatise or sermon, concerning Magistrates and 
Obedience of Subjects, also concerning the affairs of War," 
1049, 8vo, 7. * Tragedies of Tyrants, exercised upon 
the church of God from the birth of Christ unto this pre- 
sent ye*r 1572," translated by Tho. Twine, 1575, 8vo. 8. 
^Exhortation to the ministers of God's Word, &c." 1575, 
8vo. 9. " Two Sermons pn the end of the World," 1 596, 
SvOi 1.0. " Questions 'of religion cast abroad in Helvetia 
by the adversaries of the same, and answered by M. H. Bul- 
linger of Zurich, reduced into seventeen commoh places," 
1572, 8vo. 11. " Common places of Christian Religion,** 
157S and 1581, 8vo. 12. " Bellinger's Decades, in Latin, n 
1586. 13. •«« The Summe of the Four Evangelists/' 1582, 
8vo. 14. "The Sum or Substance of St. Paul's Epistle to 
the Thessalonians," 1538, 8vo.* 15. "Three Dialogues 
between the seditious Libertine or rebel Anabaptist, and 
the true obedient Christian," 1551, 8vo. 16. "Fifty godly 
and learned Sermons, divided into five decades, contain- 
ing the chief and principal points of Christian religion," a 
very thick 4to vol. 1577, particularly described by Ames* 
This book was held' in high estimation in the reign of queen 



2SS BULLINGER. 

Elizabeth. In 1586* archbishop Whitgift, in full convoca- 
tion, procured an order to be made that every clergyman of 
a certain standing, should procure a copy of them, read one 
of the sermons contained in them every week, and make 
notes of the principal matters. l 

. BULLOCK (Henry), a man of learning in the begin- 
ning of the sixteenth century, and the friend of Erasmus, 
who corresponded with him by the name of Boviutus, was 
$, native of Berkshire, according to Fuller. He was edu- 
cated at Queen's college, Cambridge, where he took his 
bachelor's degree in 1504, and his master's in 1507, and 
was chosen fellow in the last mentioned year. He com* 
menced D.D. in 1<520, and was vice-chancellor in 1524-5. 
He was esteemed a man of abilities, and chosen by cardinal 
Wolsey to answer Luther. The cardinal also made him. 
his chaplain, but we do not find that he raised him to any 
higher dignity, yet the oration he spoke in favour of the 
cardinal, now printed in Fiddes's. life of that great church- 
man, seems to have merited a higher reward. By his let- 
ters to Erasmus, it appears that he was an able Grecian ajt 
a time when that lahguage was,: little known, In 1513, in 
conjunction with Mr. Walden, he re*d a mathematical lec- 
ture, and had a salary from the university for it. He was 
also one of the! twelve preachers sent oujt by that univer- 
sity in XJ515. The biographers of. Erasmus profess their 
ignorance of the time of his. death. Tanner fixes it. in 
1$26,. ;b*t Dodd say's he was living in 1530.. He wrote, 
J. " De ,Captivitate Babylonica contra Lutherum." 2. 
"Epistol® et Orationes." .. 3; " De . Serpentibus siticulo- 
sis," a translation from the Gr^ek of Lucian, printed at 
Cambridge, 1521, 4to. 4. "Oratio coram Archiepiscopo 
Eboracensi," ibid, 152L, 4to. 8 

BULSTRODE (Edward), a lawyer of some jiote dur- 
ing the usurpation, was the second son of Edward Bul- 
strode of Hughley or Hedgiey, near Beaconsfield ii> Bucking- 
hamshire, and was born in 1588.. In 1603 he became a 
commoner of St. John's college, Oxford, but left it without 
a degree, and removed to. the Inner Temple, London, 
where he studied law, under the patronage of sir James 
Whitlock, whose learning Bulstrode celebrates in high 

1 Vita a Simlero. — Melcbior Adam in vitis Theolog — Gen. Diet — StrypeV 
Annals of the Reformation.— Saxii Onomasticon. 

* Tanner.— Pits.— FaHerV Worthi«i«.r^Wart < on , A Hist, of Poefiry, vol, Ik 
p. 43S.— Dudd's Church History.— Jortm and Knight's .Erasmus. 



BULSTKODE fi$8 

terms. After being called to the bar, he was in'. 8 Car. L 
Lent-reader, and taking part with the presbyterians in the 
rebellion, was promoted to be one of the justices of North 
Wales in 1649, by the interest of his nephew the cele* 
brated Bulstrode Whitlock. He was also an itinerant 
justice, particularly at Warwick in 1653, in which county 
he had an estate at Astley. He died at the Inner Temple; 
of which he was a bencher, in April 1659, and was buried 
in the Temple church. He published " A Golden Chain; 
or Miscellany of divers sentences of the sacred scriptures; 
and of other authors, &c." London, 1657, 8vo, but what 
he is best known by is his " Reports of Cases in B. It: 
regn. Jac. 1. & Car. I." which were first published in 
1657, 1658, and 1659, in three parts, fol. Mr.>Bridgman 
remarks that in 2 Bulstrode, 1658, there is a chasm in the 
paging from 99 to 109. Ill 1688 a second' edition was 
published, in which there is also a chasm from 104' to 1 14 ; 
yet there are the same number of pages in both editions, 
and the book is perfect. Wood mentions ah edition of 
1691. Bulstrode is said to have adopted the* method of 
Plowden in his reports, than which there cannot be a 
stronger recommendation. l 

BULSTRODE (Sir RicAard), eldest son of the pre* 
ceding, was educated at Pembroke-hall, Cambridge, 
whence he went to London, and after studying law became 
a barrister ; but being of very different principles from his 
father, joined the forces of his unhappy sovereign Charles I; 
jand was quarter-master general until the forces were dis* 
banded at Truro. At the restoration, he was sent to reside 
as agent at Brussels, and on his return in 1675, Charles II. 
knighted and made him resident, and James II. made hiift 
his envoy. Disapproving of the revolution, he adhered to 
the abdicated monarch, and accompanied him to St. Ger* 
mains, where he remained twenty-two years. We know 
•not if this be meant as the period of his life, but he is said 
to have died aged lor, which brings him to the year 1782, 
contrary to all probability, or even fact, for his great age at 
the time of bis death is mentioned in a panegyric upon 
him, inserted in 1715, in the ninth volume, or what is called 
the spurious volume of the Spectator, and if he died much 
before 1715, he could not have attained the vast age 

.J Ath. Ox. tot. H.^Fuller's Worthi<fe,---Br!rfgifaaa's Legal Bibliography, 

» 

4- 



*8* BULSTRODE. 

attributed to him, consistently with the dates of his father's 
age. 

At eighty he is said to have composed, 1. 185 elegies . 
and epigrams, all on religious subjects ; and before that, 
in early life, a poem on the birth of the duke of York, 1721. 
2. " Letters to the Earl of Arlington," 1712, 8vo. 3. 
" Essays" on subjects of manners and morals, 1715, 8vo. 
4. " Memoirs and Reflections upon the reigns and govern- 
ments of Charles I. and II." He appears to have been a 
man of talents and considerable learning, and in his poli- 
tical course, able and consistent. His son Whitlocke Bul- 
strode, who published his " Essays," enjoyed the office of 
prothonotary of the marshal's court, and published a trea- 
tise on the transmigration of souls, which went through 
two editions, 1692, 1693, 8vo, and was translated into La- 
tin by Oswald Dyke, 1725. 2. " Essays, ecclesiastical and 
civil," 1706, 8vo. 3. " Letters ^between him and Dr. 
Wood," physician to the pretender. 4. " Compendium of 
the crown laws, in three charges to the grand jury at 
Westminster," 1723, 8vo. He died Nov. 27, 1724, in his 
seventy- fourth year, and was buried in Heston church, 
Middlesex, where there is a monument and inscription on 
the north wall of the chancel. ' 

BULTEAU (Lewis), a learned French author, was borii 
at Rouen in 1615, and succeeded his uncle, as king's se- 
cretary, which office he occupied for fourteen years, at 
the end of which he withdrew to study and religious re- 
tirement among the Benedictines of St. Manr, with whom 
he passed the remainder of his days. His principal works 
were " An Essay on the monastic History of the East," 
1680, 8vo, describing the manners, &c. of the Coertobites, 
and proving that monastic institutions are not so modern 
as has been supposed. " Abridgment of the History of 
the Order of St. Benedict, as far as the tenth century," 
1684, 2 vols. 4to. " Translation of the Dialogues of Gre- 
gory the Great," with notes, 1689, 12mo ; but his modesty 
would not permit him to annex his name to his works. His 
style was formed on the model of the writers of the Port 
Royal ; and his knowledge of languages was very extensive. 
He died of an apoplexy in 1693. His brother, Charles 
Bulteau, published, in 1674, a " Treatise on the prece- 

i Noble'g Sipptaneat to Qraogtn— Lysoni's Environ* voL III.— SptcUtor, 
utniapra. 



B U L T E A U. 28A 

deuce of the Kings of France over those of Spain," 1764, 
4to. He died, dean of the king's secretaries, in 1710. l 

BULWER (John), of the seventeenth century, was au- 
thor of several books of the language of the hand, of phy- 
siognomy, and of instructions to the deaf and dumb, in- 
tended, as he expresses it, " to bring those who are so born 
to hear the sound of words with their eyes, and thence to 
learn to speak with their tongues." This is explained in 
his " Chirologia, or the natural Language of the Hand, 
&c." 1644, 8vo. He was also author of " Pathomyoto- 
mia," or a dissection of the significative muscles of the 
affections of the mind, 1649, .12mo. The most curious of 
his works is his " Anthropo-metamorphosis ; Man trans- 
formed, or the artificial changeling ;" 1653, ^to, in which 
he shews what a strange variety of shapes and dresses man- 
kind have appeared in, in the different ages and nations of 
the world. At the end of the first edition of this book in 
12mo is a catalogue of the author's works in print and MS. 
What he calls the language of the hand, or the art of 
speaking by the fingers, is yet known in every boarding- 
school and nursery, where, however, the more natural 
substitute is very soon learned. ' 

BUNEL (Peter), an elegant Latin scholar, was born at 
Toulouse in 1499, and studied at Paris, where he was dis- 
tinguished by his quick progress and promising talents* 
On his return to Toulouse, finding his family unable to 
maintain him, he went to Padua, where he was supported 
by Emilius Perrot He was afterwards taken into the 
' family of Lazarus de Baif, the French ambassador at Ve- 
nice, by whose generosity he was not only maintained, but 
enabled, to study the Greek tongue, and he afterwards 
studied Hebrew. George deSelve, bishop of Lavaur, who 
succeeded de Baif as ambassador, retained Bunel in his 
-service, and when his embassy was finished, carried him 
with him to Levaur. Upon the . death of that prelate, 
tohich happened in 1541, Bunel returned to Toiilouse, 
where he would have been reduced to the greatest indi- 
gence, had not messieurs de Faur, the patrons of virtue 
and science, extended their liberality to him unasked. One 
of these gentlemen appointed him tutor to his sons ; but 
whilst he was making the tour of Italy with them,, he was 
' cut off at Turin by a fever, in 1546. Mr. Bayle says, that 

* Diet. HWt,— MorerL * Granger, toh 111* 



2«e BUNEL 

be was one of the politest writers of the Lathi: tongue in 
the sixteenth century ; but though he was advantageously 
distinguished by the eloquence of his Ciceronian style, he 
was still more so by the strictness of his morals. The ma- 
gistrates of his native town of Toulouse set up a marble 
statue to his memory in their town-house. He left soma 
Latin epistles written with the utmost purity, which were 
first published by Charles Stevens in 1551, and afterwards 
by Henry Stevens in 1581. Another, but a more incor- 
rect edition, was printed at Toulouse in 1687, with noted 
by Mr. Gravero, advocate of Nimes. l 

BUNNEY (Edmund), descended from an ancient fa-* 
inily in Yorkshire, was born at a house called the Vache, 
near Chalfont St. Giles's, in Buckinghamshire, in 1540, 
end when sixteen years old was sent to Oxford, and having 
taken his bachelor's degree, was elected probationer fel- 
low of Magdalen college. He was at this time distin- 
guished for his knowledge of logic and philosophy, and 
soon after went to Staple's Inn, and then to Gray's Inn, 
where he spent about two years in the study of the law, 
which profession his father wished him to follow. His oWn 
inclination, * however, was for the study of divinity, which 
displeased his father so much, that, to use his own words, 
he " cast him off," although a man of piety .himself, and 
one that had fled for his religion in queen Mary's days. 
He returned accordingly to Oxford, and took his master's 
degree in 1564. In the year following he was elected fel- 
low of Merton college, an irregular act of the society, 
which, however, Wood says was absolutely necessary, as 
there was no person then in Merton college able to preach 
any public sermon in the college turn ; and not only there* 
but throughout the university at large, there was a great 
scarcity of theologists. In 1570 he was admitted to the 
.reading of the sentences, and about the same time became 
chaplain to archbishop Grindall, who gave him a prebend 
in that church, and the rectory of Bolton-Percy about sir 
•miles distant. This rectory he held twenty^five years, and 
then resigned it, but retained his prebend.- In 1570 we 
also find that he was subdean of York, which he resigned 
in 1579. In 1585 he was collated, being then B. D. to a 
prebend in Carlisle, and had likewise, although we know 
not at what period, a prebend, in St. Paul's. It appears 

i Gen. Diet. 



/ 



BUNNEY. 287 

that he preached and catechised rery frequently, both in 
Oxford and in many other places, travelling over 'a consi- 
derable part of the kingdom, and preaching wherever 
there appeared a want of clergy. This zeal, his being a 
Calvinist, and his preaching extempore, brought him un- 
der the imputation of being too forward and meddling, 
against which he vindicated himself in " A Defence of his 
labours in the work of the Ministry," written Jan. 20, 1602, 
but circulated only in manuscript. He died at Cawood in 
Yorkshire, Feb. 26 (on his monument, but 27 in arch- 
bishop Matthews' s MS diary) 1617, and was buried in 
York cathedral. He published, 1. " The Sum of Christian 
Religion," Lond. 1576, 8vo. 2. "Abridgment of Cal- 
vin's Institutions," from May's translation, ibid. 1580, 8vo. 
3. "Sceptre of Judah," &c. ibid. 1584, 8vo. 4. « The 
Coronation of King David, &c." 4to, 1588/ 5. Three or 
four controversial pamphlets with Parsons, the Jesuit. 6. 
" The Corner Stone, or a form of teaching Jesus Christ 
out of the Scriptures," ibid. 1611, fol. l 

BUNNEY (Francis), younger brother of the preceding, 
was born at Vache, May 8, 1543, came to Oxford in 1558, 
and after taking his bachelor's degree, was chosen per- 
petual fellow of Magdalen college in 1562. He then took 
his master's degree, and entered into holy orders in 1567. 
He was appointed chaplain to the earl of Bedford, and 
leaving his fellowship in 1571, went to the north of Eng- 
land, where he became a frequent and popular preacher, 
like his brother. In May 1572 he was inducted into a pre- 
bend of Durham; in 1573 he was made archdeacon of 
Northumberland, and in 1 578 he was presented to the rec- 
tory of Ryton in the bishopric of Durham, on which he 
resigned his archdeaconry. He died April 16, 1617, a 
few weeks after his brother, and was buried in Rytort 
church. Wdod represents him as a zealous enemy of 
popery, an admirer of Calvin, and a man of great charity. 
His works are three tracts against cardinal Bellarmin and 
popery; an " Exposition of Romans iii. 28, on Justifica- 
tion by Faith," London, 1616, 4to; and " Plain and fa- 
miliar exposition of the Ten Commandments," ibid. 1617, 
8vo. He also wrote a commentary on the prophet Joel, 
being the substance of some sermons ; but, according to 
Wood, this was left in manuscript. * 

i Atb. Ox. toL L— Willis'* Cathedrals. * Ibid. 



388 B U N Y A N. 

BUNYAN (John), author of the justly -aclixiired allegory 
of the " Pilgrim's Progress," was born at Elstow, near 
Bedford, 1628. His parents, though very mean, toQfc 
care to give him that learning which was suitable to their 
condition, bringing him up to read and write, both winch 
v he quickly forgot, abandoning himself to all manner of 
wickedness, but not without frequent checks of conscience, 
One day being at play with his companions (Jthe writer of 
his life tells us), a voice suddenly darted from heaven into 
his soul, saying, " Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to 
heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell !". This put him 
into such a consternation, that he immediately left his 
sport ; and looking up to heaven, thought he saw the Lor,d 
Jesus looking down upon him, as one highly displeased 
I with him, and threatening him with some grievous punish? 

ment for his ungodly practices. At another time, whilst 
he was uttering many oaths, he was severely reproved by 
a woman, who was herself a notorious sinner : she told 
him be was the ugliest fellow for swearing that ever she 
heard in all hfer life, and that he was able to spoil all the 
youth of the town, if they came but into his company* 
This reproof coming from a woman, whom he knew to be 
very wicked, filled him with secret shame ; and made him, 
from that time, very much refrain from it. His father 
brought him up to his own business, which was. that of a 
tinker. Being a soldier in the parliament army, at the 
siege of Leicester, in 1645, he was drawn out to stand 
sentinel ; but another soldier of his company desired to 
take his place, to which he agreed, and thus escaped being 
shot by a musket-ball, which took off his comrade. About 
1655 he was admitted a member of a baptist congregation 
at Bedford, and soon after was chosen their preacher. In 
1660, being convicted at the sessions of hokjingrunlawful 
assemblies and conventicles, he was sentenc$4V? perpetual 
banishment, and in the mean time committed to, gaol, from 
which he was discharged, after a confinement of twelve 
years and an half, by the compassionate interposition of 
Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln. During his imprisonment, 
his own hand ministered to his necessities, making many 
an hundred gross of long-tagged thread laces, a trade which 
he had learned since his confinement. At this time bq 
also wrote many of his tracts, particularly the " Pilgrim* 
Progress." Afterwards, being at liberty, he travelled into 
several parts of England, to visit and confirm the brethren* 



B N Y A N. 289 

which procured him the epithet of Bishop Bunyan. When 
the declaration of James II. for liberty of conscience was 
published, he, by the contributions of his followers, built 
a meeting-house in Bedford, and preached constantly to 
a numerous audience. He died in London of a fever, 
1688, aged sixty. He had by his wife four children, one 
of whom, named Mary, was blind. This daughter, he 
said, lay nearer his heart whilst he was in prison, than all 
the rest ; and that the thought of her enduring hardship 
would be sometimes almost ready to break bis heart, but 
that God greatly supported him by these two texts of 
scripture, " Leave the fatherless children, I vyll preserve, 
them alive; and let the widows trust in me. The Lord 
said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verij^ I 
will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in, the time of 
evil." Jer. xlix. 1 1« and chap. xv. 11. His works are col- 
lected in two volumes in folio, printed at London in 1736-7, 
and reprinted in 1760, arid often since in various forms. 
The con tin ua tor of his life, in the second of those volumes, 
tells us, that. " he appeared in countenance to be of a 
stern and rough temper, but in his conversation mild and 
affable; not given to loquacity, or much discourse in com- 
pany, unless some urgent occasion required it ; observing 
never to boast of himself or his parts, but rather seem low 
in his own eyes, and submit himself to the judgment of 
others; abhorring lying and swearing; being just in all 
that lay in his power to his word ; not seeking to revenge 
injuries, loving to reconcile differences, and making friend- 
ship with all. He had a sharp quick eye; accompanied 
with an excellent discerning of persons, being of good 
judgment and quick wit As for his person, he was tall of 
stature, strong boned, though not corpulent : somewhat 
of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, wearing his hair on 
his upper lip, after the old British fashion ; his hair red- 
dish, but in his latter days time had sprinkled it with gray; 
his nose well-set, but not declining or bending, and his 
mouth moderately large; his forehead something high, 
and his habit always plain and modest." 

Of all his works, the " Pilgrim's Progress" has attained 
the greatest popularity, and greater than any other human 
composition. It was remarked by the learned Dr. Samuel 
Johnson, that the Pilgrim's Progress. has had the best evi- 
dence of its merit, namely, the general and continued 
approbation of mankind. No work of human composition 

Vol. VII. U 



^ i 



290 B U N Y A N. 

can certainly be compared with it in universality and ex- 
tent of popularity. Besides having been translated into 
several European languages, scarce a year has passed, since 
its first appearance, in which the public has not called for 
a new edition. For many years, however, this work was 
confined to the serious part of the world for whom it was 
intended, and was seldom noticed by others but as the 
production of an illiterate man, calculated only to please 
illiterate people : an objection which, if it had been just, 
could not be said to militate very strongly against its merit. 
However necessary learning may be to guard the outworks 
of Christianity against the attacks of infidels, pure and 
undefiled religion requires so little literature to inculcate 
it in the case of others, or to receive it ourselves, that we 
find it had no hand in the first promulgation of the gospel, 
nor much in the various means that have been taken to 
perpetuate it. But Bunyan's want of education is the 
highest praise that can be. given. Such a defect exhibits 
the originality of his genius in the strongest light? and 
since more attention has been paid by men of critical taste 
to his " Pilgrim's Progress, 9 ' he has been admitted into 
a higher rank among English writers, and it seems uni- 
versally acknowledged that nothing was wanting to ad- 
vance him yet higher but the advantages of education, or 
of an intimacy with the best writers in his own language. 
, Dr. Johnson, whose opinion has been already quoted in 
part, conceived so high an opinion of the allegorical struc- 
ture of the Pilgrim, that he thought Bunyan must have 
read Spenser, and observes, as a remarkable circumstance, 
that the Pilgrim's Progress begins very much like the poem 
of Dante, although there was no translation of Dante when 
Bunyan wrote. Dr. Beattie says that some of the allegories 
in the Pilgrim are well conceived, and prove* the author to 
have possessed powers of invention, which, if they had 
been refined by learning, might have produced something 
very noble. What learning might have done to Bunyan 
we no more can tell than we can tell what it might have 
done to Shakspeare ; but, in our opinion, Bunyan, with- 
out its aid, has produced " something very noble," be- 
cause he has produced a work the most perfect in its kind, 
and which has baffled, and continues to baffle all attempts 
at imitation. The elegant author, whom we have just 
quoted, goes on to say " that the work has been imi* 
toted, but with little success. The learned bishop Patrick 



B U N Y A N. . 291 

-wrote the c Parable of the Pilgrim/ but I am not satis- 
fied that he borrowed the hint* as it is generally thought 
he did, from John Bunyan. There is. no resemblance in 
the plan, nor does the bishop speak a word of the Pil- 
*grim's Progress, which I think, he would have done, if he 
had seen it. Besides, Bunyan's fable is full of incident ; 
Patrick's is dry, didactic, verbose, and exceedingly bar- 
ren in the invention." 

•. The rev. Mr. Granger, in his Biographical History of 
•England, is yet more decided in his admiration of Bun- 
yan's talents. — " Bunyan, who has been mentioned among 
the least: and lowest of our writers, and even ridiculed as a 
driveller by those who have never read him, deserves a 
much higher rank than is commonly imagined. His ' Pil- 
grim's ProgressVgives us a clear and distinct idea of Calvin- 
istical divinity. The allegory is admirably carried on, and 
the characters justly drawn and uniformly supported. This 
author's original and poetic genius shines through the 
coarseness and vulgarity of his language, and intimates 
that if he had been a master of numbers, he might have 
composed a poem worthy of Spenser himself. As this 
opinion may be deemed paradoxical, I shall venture to 
name two persons of eminence of the same sentiments : 
one, the late Mr; JMerrick of Reading (who has been heard 
to say in conversation, that Bunyan's invention was like 
that of Homer) ; the other, Dr. Roberts, now (late) fellow 
of Eton college." 

These opinions of Bunyan will be found amply justified 
by an impartial perusal of the work in question, except 
with regard to what is said of " the coarseness and vul- 
garity" of Bunyan's style, which is certainly very unjust. 
His style, if compared with the writers of his age on sub- 
jects of religion, and particularly, if his want of education 
be taken into consideration, will suffer very little. On 
the other hand, there is reason to suspect that, by some 
of these critics, simplicity has been mistaken for vulgarity, 
although we ape willing to allow that a few phrases might 
be elevated in expression without injury to the sentiment. 
But of what authc?r in the seventeenth century may not this 
be said ? It ought also tote remembered that the " Pil- 
. grim's Progress" was written while the author was suffering 
• a long imprisonment, during which the only books to which 
he had access were the Bible and Fox's Martyrology; 
anil it is evident that the whole work is sprinkled over with 

w 2 



2§2 BUNYAN/ 

the phraseology of scripture, not only because it was that 
in which he was most conversant, but that which was the 
best adapted to his subject 

Mr. Granger's opinion of the probable advancement he 
might have made in poetry, has been opposed by the late 
Dr. Kippis in the Biographia Britannica, but in a manner 
which evinces that the learned doctor was a very incom- 
petent judge. He says Bunyan " had the invention, but 
not the other natural qualifications which are, necessary to 
constitute a great poet." Now, we believe it is the uni- 
versal opinion of all critics, since criticism was known, that 
invention is the first qualification of a poet, and the only 
one which can be called natural, all others depending upon 
the state of refinement and education in the age the poet 
happens to live. Hence it is that our early poets are in 
general so exceedingly deficient in the graces of harmony, 
and that many of our modern poets have little else. With 
respect to Patrick's Pilgrim, mentioned above, it is ne- 
cessary to observe that (besides its being doubtful which 
was first published, Bunyan's or Patrick's) the question is 
not, whether Bunyan might not have been preceded by 
authors who have attempted something like the Pilgrim's 
Progress: far less is it necessary to inquire, whether he 
be entitled to the merit of being the first who endeavoured 
to convey religious instruction in allegory. It is sufficient 
praise that when his work appeared, ail others which re- 
sembled it, or seemed to resemble it, became forgotten ; 
and the palm of the highest merit was assigned to him by 
universal consent. It was, therefore, to little purpose that 
a small volume was lately published, entitled " Th& Isle of 
Man, or the legal proceedings in Man-shire against Sin," 
by the rev. R. Bernard, from which Bunyan was " sup- 
posed" to have taken the idea of his Pilgrim. Bunyan's 
work so far transcends that and every similar attempt, that he 
would have been very much to blame (allowing, what can- 
not be proved, that he took the idea from Bernard) had he 
not adopted a plan which he was qualified to execute with 
such superior ability. 

Of late years many imitations have been attempted, and 
rnany rivals have appeared to Bunyan, but while candour 
obliges us to allow, in some instances, the goodness of the 
intention, and that they are written in a style which pro- 
mises to be useful, it is at the same time justice to our 
author to say, that they fall very short of his performance 



BUNYAN. 2»S 

jn almost every requisite : in simplicity, in the preserva- 
tion of the allegorical characters, and in that regular and 
uniform progress which conducts the hero through every 
scene, and renders every scene and every episode subser- 
vient to the main purpose. How well this has been exe- 
cuted! the constant and increasing popularity of the " Pil- 
grim's Progress" is sufficient to demonstrate. What pleases 
all, and pleases long, must have extraordinary merit : and 
that there is a peculiar fascination about the Pilgrim has 
never been denied either by those who do not read to be 
instructed, or who are averse to the author's religious 
opinions. Of this latter, we have a striking instance in 
dean Swift. In his celebrated Letter to a young Clergyman 
he says, " I have been better entertained, and more in- 
formed, by a few pages in the Pilgrim's Progress, than 
by a long discourse upon the will, and the intellect, and 
simple and complex ideas." It must be allowed to be no 
small merit to have "fixed the attention of such a man as 
Swift, and to have conciliated the esteem of men of critical 
taste, on account of the powers of invention, and the ex- 
ercise of a rich and fertile imagination. 

It may be prpper here to remark, that there is a small 
book, which has been often printed with it under the title 
of a Third Part of the Pilgrim's Progress ; but the purpose 
of our. making the. remark is to guard our readers against it 
as a very gross imposition. The late rev. John Newton, b}' 
a very happy figure, asserts that f a common bedgestake 
deserves as much to be compared with Aaron's rod, which 
yielded blossoms and almonds, as this poor performance to 
be obtruded upon the world under the title of the " Third 
Part of the Pilgrim's Progress." Besides that, this forgery 
contradicts Bunyan's doctrines, it is evident that hi* plan 
was completed in his Second Part, .' and that no addition 
could have been made even by his own ingenious pen, that 
wou^ld not have partaken of the nature of a repetition. It 
remains to be noticed, that they who have read no other 
production of Buny^n, have yet to learn the extent pf the 
wonderful powers displayed in his various, works. Consi- 
dering his narrow and confined education, we have been 
almost, equally struck with the perspicuous and clear views 
of his various theological .and practical treatises, as the 
wQrfcs pf £ man gifted in a most uncommon degree. \ 

' Biog. Brit— Life by hinifceif. — Ath. Ox. vol. II. — &c. 



». «. »» 



S9* BUONAMICI. 

BUONACCORSI. See PERINO DEL VAGA. 

BUONACCORSI. See ESPERIENTE. 

BUONAMICI (Castruccio), an Italian historian, was 
born at Lucca in 1710, of a reputable family, and first em- 
braced the ecclesiastical state. His studies being finished, 
he went to Rome, and during a stay of some years in that 
city, attracted the notice of the cardinal de Polignac, who 
was desirous of gaining his attachment, but whom he re- 
fused to accompany into France. Not meeting in the 
church with the advantages he had promised himself, he 
gave it tip, in order to bear arms in the service of the king 
of the Two Sicilies, which, however, did not prevent his 
devoting himself to the study of the belles-lettres. He 
wrote in Latin the history of the war of Velletri in 1745, 
between the Austrians and Neapolitans, in which he was 
employed, under the title of " De rebus ad Velitras gestis 
commentarius," 1746, 4to. This obtained him a pension 
from the king of Naples, and the rank of commissary ge- 
neral of artillery. But his most considerable work is the 
history of the war in Italy, which appeared in 1750 and 
1751, under this title, u Debelldltalicocommentarii," 4to, 
in three books, for which he got the title of count to him- 
self and hie descendants* These two histories are much 
esteemed for the correctness of the narration and the purity 
of the Latinity, and have been several times reprinted. 
The count de Buonamici also composed a treatise " De 
scientia militari," but which has not hitherto been publish- 
ed. He died in 1761, at Lucca, the place of his nativity, 
whither he was come for the benefit of his health. The 
name dt Castrtrccio being very famous in the history of 
Lucca, be adopted it on his going into the Neapolitan 1 ser- 
vice, instead of his baptismal name, which was Francis- 
Joseph-Mary. His work on the war in Italy was trans- 
lated into English, and published in 1753 at London by 
A. Wishart, M. A. under the title of " Commentaries of 
the late war in Italy," 8 vo. * 

BUONARROTI (Michel Angelo), a most illustrious 
painter^ sculptor, and architect, was born in the castle of 
Caprese, in Tuscany* March -6, 1474, and descended from 
the noble family of the counts of Canossa. At the time of 
his birth, his father, Lodovico di Leonardo Buonarroti *Si- 
xnone, was podesta, or governor of C&prese and Chiutfi, 

* Diet* Hilt.— Saxii On<*i»st. 



B U O NARROTL 295 

and as be bad not risen above the superstitious belief in 
astrological predictions, so common in that age, be was 
probably pleased to bear that " his child would be a very 
extraordinary genius." His biographers indeed go so far 
as to tell us of a predictipn, that he would excel in paint? 
ing, sculpture, and architecture. When of a proper age, 
Michel Angelo was sent to a grammar-school at Florence, 
where, whatever progress he might make in his books, he 
contracted a fondness for drawing, which at first alarmed 
the pride of his family, but his father at length perceiving 
that it was hopeless to give his mind any other direction, 
placed him under Domenico Ghirlanda'io, the most eminent 
painter at that time in Florence, and one of the most cele- 
brated in Italy. He was accordingly articled for three 
years to Ghirlanda'io, from April 1488, but is said to have 
reaped no benefit from his instructions, as his master soon 
became jealous of his talents. He rapidly, however, sur- 
passed his contemporary students, by the force of his ge- 
nius, and his study of nature ; and adopted a style of draw- 
ing and design more bold and daring than Ghirlandaio had 
been accustomed to see practised in bis school ; and, from 
an anecdote Vasa,ri tells, it would seem Michel Angelo 
soon felt himself even superior to his master. One of the 

Smpils copying a female portrait from a drawing by Ghir- 
andaio, he took a pen and made a strong outline round it 
on the same paper, to shew him its defects ; and the supe- 
rior style of the contour was as much admired as the act 
was considered confident and presumptuous. His great 
facility in copying with accuracy whatever objects were 
before him sometimes forced a compliment even from 
Ghirlandaio himself. 

When about this time Lorenzo de Medici established a 
school for the advancement of sculpture, in a garden in 
Florence, under the superintendence of Bertoldo, Lorenzo 
requested Ghirlandaio to permit any of his scholars to 
study there, who were desirous of drawing from the an- 
tique, and from that time the Medici garden became the 
favourite school of Michel Angelo. No sooner had he enter- 
ed upon his studies here, than seeing a student modelling 
some figures in clay, he felt an emulation to do the same ; 
and Lorenzo, who frequently visited the gardens, observ- 
ing his progress, encouraged him with expressions of ap- 
probation. He was, not long after, desirous to try his 
skill in marble, aad being particularly interested in a mut 



296 BUONARROTI. 



] g 



tilated old head, or rather a mask representing a laughing 
Faun, he chose it for his original. Although this was his 
first essay in sculpture, he finished it in a few days, sup- 
plying what was imperfect in the' original, and making 
some other additions. Lorenzo visiting his garden as 
usual, found Michel Angelo polishing his mask, and 
thought it an extraordinary work for so young an artist ? 
yet jestingly remarked, " You have restored to the old 
Faun all his teeth, but don't you know that a man of such 
an age has generally some wanting ?" Upon this observa- 
tion, the moment Lorenzo departed, Michel Angelo broke 
a tooth from the upper jaw, and drilled a hole in the gum 
to represent its having fallen out. 

To this little circumstance Michel Angelo, who was now 
between fifteen and sixteen years old, owed the patronage 
of Lorenzo, who adopted him into his family, provided 
him with a room, and every accommodation in the palace, 
treated him as his own son, and introduced him to men of 
rank and genius. Among others he formed an intimacy 
with Politiano, who resided under the same roof, and soon 
became warmly attached' to his interests. At his recom- 
mendation he executed a basso-relievo in marble, the sub- 
ject of which was the battle of the Centaurs, of which it is 
sufficient praise, that it stood approved in the riper judg- 
ment of Michel Angelo himself, who, although not indul- 
gent to his own productions, did not hesitate on seeing it, 
even in the decline of life, to express his regret that he 
had not entirely devoted himself to sculpture. In 1492, 
death deprived him of the patronage of Lorenzo, which, 
however, was in some measure continued to him by Lo- 
renzo's successor, a man of corrupt and vitiated taste, of 
whose discrimination in merit we have this notable proof 
that he boasted of two extraordinary persofis in his house, 
Michel Angelo, and a Spanish footman who could out -run 
a hdrse. Michel Angelo, however, prosecuted his studies, 
and produced some fine specimens of art, until the tran- 
quillity of Florence was disturbed by the haughty and pu- 
sillanimous conduct of his patron, Piero de Medici, when 
he thought proper to retire to Bologna to avoid the im- 
pending evils. Here he was invited into the house of Al- 
dovrandi, a Bolognese gentleman, and one of the sixteen 
Constituting the government, and during his stay executed 
two statues in marble for the church of St. Domenico. 
After remaining with this hospitable friend somewhat mora 



BUONARROTI. 297 

than a year, the affairs of Florence being tranquillized, he 
returned home to his father's house, pursued his profes- 
sion, and produced a statue of a sleeping Cupid, that ad- 
vanced his reputation, but not without the aid of some 
trick. He was advised by a friend to stain the marble so 
as to give it the appearance of an antique, and in this 
state it was sent to Rome to an agent who pretended to 
have dug it up in a vineyard, and sold to cardinal St. Gior- 
gio for two hundred ducats. What rendered this imposi- 
tion unnecessary to Michel Angelo' s fame, was, that on 
the discovery of the real artist, he received the most fiat* 
tering praises, and was invited to Rome, as the proper 
theatre for the exercise of his talents* At Rome he made 
several statues, which placed him in an enviable rank 
among his contemporaries, and a cartoon of St. Francis re- 
ceiving the stigmata, painted in distemper for St. Pietro 
in Montorio; and while he executed these commission* 
both with credit and profit to himself, he was also indefa- 
tigable by observation and study to improve and elevate 
his style. 

On the promotion of Pietro Soderini, to the rank of per- 
petual gonfaloniere, or chief magistrate of Florence, Mi- 
chel Angelo was advised to return thither, as Soderini had 
the reputation of an encourager of genius, and he intro- 
duced himself to his patronage by a colossal statue of 
David, a figure in bronze, name unknown, and a groupe of 
David and Goliath. At the same time, that he might not 
entirely neglect the practice of painting, he painted a 
holy family for one Angelo Doni, concerning which Vasari 
relates the following anecdote. When the picture was 
finished, it was sent home with a note requesting the pay- 
ment of seventy ducats : Angelo Doni did not expect such 
a charge, and told the messenger he would, give forty, 
which he thought sufficient ; Michel Angelo immediately 
sent back the servant, and demanded his picture, or an 
hundred ducats : Angelo Doni, not liking to part with it, 
returned the messenger, agreeing to pay the original sum, 
but Michel Angelo, indignant at being haggled with, then 
doubled his first demand, and Angelo Doni, still wishing .to 
possess the picture, acceded, rather than try any further 
experiment to abate his price. 

That Michel Angelo might have an opportunity of add- 
ing to his fame as a painter, the gonfaloniere commissioned 
him to paint a large historical subject, to ornament the h^U 



2£a BUONARROTI, 

of the ducal .palace ; and as it was the honourable ambition 
of Sode^ini to employ the talents of his country in the esta~ 
blishment of its fame, he engaged the abilities of Leonardo 
da Vinci, at the same time, to execute a corresponding 
picture to occupy the opposite side of the hall. An event 
in the war between the Florentines and Pisans, was the 
subject Michel Angelo chose, ahd that of Leonardo da 
Vinci wa& a battle of cavalry. Michel Angelo's cartoon 
Wfks the. most extraordinary work that had appeared since 
the revival of the arts in Italy, but' as no part of it now re* 
mains, an idea of it can be formed only from Vasari's ac- 
count and description. Such was the excellence of this 
work, that some thought it absolute perfection ; not to be 
rivalled, and hopeless to be approached ; and certainly 
some credit is due to this opinion, as from the time it was 
placed in the papal hall, it was for many years constantly 
visited by foreigners as well as natives, who, by studying 
and drawing from it, became eminent masters. It requires 
to be added, however, that the cartoon was all that was 
finished ; from various causes, the picture itself was never 
begun, and the cartoon, which was exhibited to students' 
for their improvement, was by degrees mutilated and de~ 
stroyed, an irreparable injury to posterity. 

On the accession of pope Julius II. a patron of genius 
and learning,. Michel A ngelo was among the first invited 
to bis court, and after some time the pope gave him an 
unlimited commission to make a mausoleum. Having re* 
ceived full powers, he commenced a design worthy of 
himself and his patron. The plan was a parallelogram, 
and the superstructure to consist of forty statues, many of 
which were to be colossal, interspersed with ornamental 
figures and bronze basso-relievos, besides the necessary 
architecture, with appropriate decorations, to unite the 
composition into one stupendous whole. When this 
magnificent design was completed, it met with the popels 
entire approbation, and Michel Angelo was desired 
to go into St Peter's to see where it could be eonve- 
niently placed. Michel Angelo fixed upon a particular 
spot, but the church itself, now old, being considered 
as ill-adapted for so superb a mausoleum, the pope, after 
many consultations with architects, determined to rebuild 
St. Peter's ; and this is the origin of that edifice which 
took a hundred and fifty years to complete, and is now the 
grandest display of architectural splendour that ornaments 
the Christian world. To those, says his late excellent 



BUONARROTI, MB 

biographer, who are curious in tracing the remote cause* 
of great events to their Source, Michel Angelo perhaps may 
be found, though very unexpectedly, to have! thu* laid the 
first ?tone of the reformation. His monument demanded 
a building of corresponding magnificence; to prosecute 
the undertaking money was wanting, and indulgences were 
sold to supply the deficiency of the treasury. A monk of 
Saxony (Luther) opposed the authority of the church, fend 
this singular fatality attended the event, that whilst the 
most splendid edifice which the world had ever seen was 
building for the catholic faith, the religion to which it was 
consecrated was shaken to the foundation. 

The work was begun, but before it had proceeded far; 
Michel Angelo met with some affront from the servants 
of the papal palace, who were jealous of his favour with 
the pope, and not being admitted to his holiness when he 
came on business, set off from Rome for Florence. As 
soon as this was known, couriers were dispatched after 
him, but, as he had got beyond the pope's territories, they 
could not use force, and only obtained of Michel Angelo 
a letter to the pope explaining the cause of his departure. 
But after some time, and the intercession of friends, Michel 
Angelo consented to return to Rome, where, to his great dis- 
appointment, ne found that the pope had changed his mind, 
and instead of completing Ihe monument, had determined 
to decorate with pictures the ceilings and walls of the Sis- 
tine chapel, in honour of the memory of his uncle Sixtus IV. 
The walls of this chapel were already ornamented with 
historical paintings by various masters, but these were now 
to be effaced, and the entire chapel to be painted by 
Michel Angelo, so as to correspond in its parts, and make 
one uniform whole. Michel Angelo was diffident of his 
powers in freaco-p&inting, and recommended Raffaello, 
but the pope was peremptory, and our artist obliged to 
yield. He accordingly prepared the cartoons, and en- 
deavoured to engage persons experienced in fresco* 
painting, but being disappointed in the first specimen of 
their abilities, he determined himself to try how far he 
could overcome the difficulties which made it necessary 
for him to seek their aid, .and succeeded in painting the 
ceiling tQ the astonishment and admiration even of his 
enemies. For the description of this stupendous monu-J 
ment of human genius, we must refer to our authority, 
but the circumstance not the least remarkable, was, that 
the whole was completed in twenty months, and on All- 



400 BUONARROTI 

Saints-Day, 1512, the chapel was opened, and the pope 
officiated at high mass to a crowded and admiring audience. 
Michel Angelo next applied himself to make designs for 
other pictures for the sides of the chapd, to complete the 
original plan : but on Feb. 21, 1513, the pope died, and 
to Michel Angelo his loss was not supplied. The old 
paintings still remain on the walls of this chapel. 

Julius II. was succeeded by the celebrated Leo X. who 
professed the same warmth of attachment, and the same 
zeal to promote the talents of Michel Angelo, But we 
have already seen that the attachment of this great artist's 
patrons was mixed with a degree of caprice which reduced 
him often to a state of servitude. Michel Angelo had re- 
ceived instructions to construct a monument for Julius II. 
on a lesser scale than the mausoleum which we have already 
mentioned. This Leo X. immediately interrupted, by in- 
sisting on his going to Florence to build the facade of the 
church of S. Lorenzo, which remained unfinished from the 
time of his grandfather Cosmo de Medici, atod Michel 
Angelo, after in vain pleading the engagement he was 
under, was obliged to comply. Nor was this all. While 
at Carrara, ordering the necessary marble, be received a 
letter from Leo desiring him to go to Pietra Santa, where 
his holiness had been told there was marble equal to' that 
of Carrara. Michel Angelo obeyed, and reported that the 
marble was of an inferior quality, and that thfere was 116 
means of cbnveying it to Florence without making a road 
of many miles to the sea, through mountains, and over 
marshes, &c. The pope, however, flattered with the 
prospect of procuring marble from a territory which he 
could at any time call his own, ordered him to proceed, 
the result of which was that the talents of this great man 
were buried in those mountains, and his time consumed 
during the whole reign of Leo X. (above eight years) in 
little other, than raising stone out of a quarry, and making 
a road to convey it to the sea. At the death of Leo the 
fatjade of S. Lorenzo was not advanced beyond its founda- 
tion, and the time of Michel Angelo had been consumed 
in making a road, in seeing that five columns were made 
at the quarry of Pietra Santa, in conducting them to the 
sea-side, and in transporting one of them to Florence; 
this employment, with occasionally making some models 
in wax, and some trifling designs for the interior vf a room 
in the Medici palace, appears to have been all the benefit 



B U O N A R R O T L Ity 

that was derived from his talent* during the whole of this 
pontificate. 

. During the pontificate of Adrian VI. who succeeded 
Leo, the facade of S. Lorenzo was altogether laid aside, 
and Michel Angelo endeavoured to resume his labours on 
the monument of Julius II. for which the heirs of Julius 
were impatient, and threatened to make the artist account 
for the monies received in the pontificate of Julius. He 
found a friend, however,, in the cardinal Giuliano de Me* 
djci, who commissioned him to build a library and new 
sacristy to the church of S. Lorenzo, to serve as a mauso* 
leum for the Medici family; and also to execute monu- 
ments to. the memory of the dukes Giuliano and Lorenzo, 
to be placed in it ; and these works took up the whole of 
Michel Angela's attention during the short pontificate of 
Adrian VI, which lasted only twenty months, ending Sept 
14, 1523. During the first part of the pontificate of his 
successor Clement VII. formerly Giuliano de Medici, Michel 
Angelo went on with the chapel and library of S. Lorenzo, 
which, Giuliano bad ordered, and executed a statue of 
Christ, of the size of nature, to be placed on an altar in 
the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, at Rome, and 
which is still in that church, but on a pedestal at the en* 
trance of the choir. During the wars which succeeded, 
we find him employing his talents on works of fortification 
at Florence, when besieged by the prince of Orange, but 
Rearing of some treacherous plans to undermine the re** 
public, he withdrew secretly to Ferrara, and thence to 
Venice. Being, however, solicited by persons high in . 
office not to abandon the post committed to his charge, he 
returned, and v resumed his. situation, until the city sur- 
rendered to the pope, when he was obliged to secrete him- 
self in an obscure retreat. The pope having by a public 
manifesto given him assurances, that if he would discover 
himself he should not be molested, on condition that he 
vvould furnish the two monuments in St. Lorenzo, already 
begun, Michel Angelo, on this, with little respect for 
the. persons his . genius was to commemorate, and with less 
affection for his employer, hastened to complete his la- 
boqr; not with any ardour of sentiment, but as a task 
which was the price of his liberty. 

Tranquillity being restored in Italy, Michel Angelo 
was again called. upon by the duke of Urbino, to complete 
tjie pionijnient of Julius II. agreeable to the last design, 



302 B U O N AH R O T I. 

and .was again interrupted by the pope, who wished 
to employ him at Florence, and afterwards ordered ; him 
to paint the two end walls of the Sistine chapel. Our 
artist being unable openly to oppose the will of the 
pope, procrastinated the work as much as possible, and 
while he was engaged in making a cavtoon for the chapel, 
secretly employed as much of his time as circumstances 
would allow, in forwarding the monument to Julius II. 
-But this wots again interrupted by the next pope, Paul III. 
although at length, after much toegociation, and after 
changing the design three times, he was permitted to 
complete his task, which was placed, not in St. Peter's, 
as originally intended, but in the church of S. Pietro, in 
iVincolh • 

As. there now remained no objection to Michel Angelo's 
devoting his- time to the service of the pope, he commenced 
painting the great work of the Last Judgment, in the 
Sistine chapel, which was'finished it> 1541, and the chapel 
opened >on Christmas day. Persons are described to have 
come from the most distant parts of Italy to see it, and 
the. public and the court were rivals in admiration, which 
must have been peculiarly grateful to Michel Angelo, not 
enly from that pleasure common to all men who are con- 
scious of deserving well, and having those claims allowed, 
but in succeeding to give the pope Paul III. entire satis- 
faction, who, in the first year of his pontificate, liberally 
provided him with a pension for his life of six hundred 
pounds a year, to enable him. to prosecute the undertaking 
to his own satisfaction. 

Near to the Sistine chapel, in the Vatican, Antonio de 
San Gallo built another by thV order of Paul III. which is 
called after its founder the Paoline chapel, and the pope 
being solicitous to render it more honourable to bis name, 
desired Michel Angelo would paint the walls in fresco. 
Although he now began to feel he was an old man, he un- 
dertook the commission, and on the sides opposite to each 
other painted two large pictures, representing the martyr- 
dom of St. Peter, and the conversion of St. Paul. These 
pictures, he said, cost him great fatigue, and in their 
progress declared himself sorry to find fresco painting was 
not an employment for his years ; he therefore petitioned 
his holiness that Per in o del Vaga might finish the ceiling 
from his designs, which was to have been decorated with 
painting and stucco ornaments; but this part of the work 
was not afterwards carried into execution. 



BUONARROTI. v 308 

i 

The pope often consulted Michel Angelo as an architect, 
although Antonio de San Gallo was the architect of St. 
Peter's church, and promoted to that situation by his irt- 
terest when cardinal Farnese, and now employed in his 
private concerns. The Farnese palace in Rome was de- 
signed by San Gallo, and the building advanced by him 
during his life ; yet Michel Angelo constructed the bold 
projecting cornice that surrounds the top, in conjunction 
with him, at the express desire of the pope. He also con- 
sulted Michel Angelo in fortifying the Borgo* and made 
designs for that purpose ; but the discussion of this subject 
proved the cause of some enmity between these two rivals 
in the pope's esteem. In 1546 San Gallo died, and Mi- 
chel Angelo was called upon to fill his situation as archi- 
tect of St. Peter's : he at first declined that honour, but 
his holiness laid his commands upon him, which admitted 
.neither of apology nor excuse ; however he accepted the 
appointment upon those conditions, that he would receive 
no salary, and that it should be so expressed in the patent, 
as he undertook the office purely from devotional feelings; 
and that, as hitherto the various persons employed in all 
the subordinate situations had only considered their -own 
interest to the extreme prejudice of the undertaking, < he 
should be empowered to discharge them, and appoint 
others in their stead ; and lastly, that he should be per- 
mitted to make whatever alterations he chose in San Gallo's 
. design, or entirely supply its place with what he might 
consider more simple, or in a better style. To these con- 
dition's his holiness acceded, and the patent was made out 
accordingly. 

San Gallo's model being more conformable to the prin- 
ciples of Saracenic than of Grecian or Roman architecture 
in the multiplicity and division of its parts, Michel Angelo 
made an original design upon a reduced scale, on the plan 
of a Greek cross, which met with the pope's approbation ; 
ibr, although the dimensions were less, the form was more 
grand than that of San Gallo's model. Having commenced 
•his. labours on this edifice, it advanced with considerable 
activity, and before the end of the pontificate of Paul III. 
began to assume its general form and character. This, how- 
ever, was only a part of his extensive engagements.. He was 
. commissioned to carry on the building of the Farnese palace, 
left unfinished by the death of San Gallo ; and employed to 
build a palace on the Capitoline-hill for the senator of 
Rome, two galleries for the reception of sculpture and 



304 BUONARROTI, 

pictures, and also to ornament this celebrated site with 
antique statues and relics of antiquity, from time to tinie 
dug up and discovered in Rome and its environs. 

As in proceeding with St. Peter's, he had, agreeably to 
his patent, chosen his own workmen, and dismissed others, 
the latter seldom failed of exerting such malice against 
him as they could display with impunity ; and being exas- 
perated by disappointments, they endeavoured to repre- 
sent him as an unworthy successor of San Gallo, and upon 
the death of Paul III. an effort was made to remove him 
from his situation, but Julius III. who succeeded to the 
pontificate, was not less favourably disposed towards him 
than his predecessor; however, they presented a memorial, 
petitioning the pope to hold a committee of architects in 
St Peter's at Rome, to convince his holiness that their 
accusations* and complaints were not unfounded. At the 
head of this party was cardinal Saiviati, nephew to Leo X, 
and cardinal Marcello Cervino, who was afterwards pope 
by the title of Marcellus II. Julius agreed to the investi- 
gation, and the parties appeared in his presence. The 
complainants stated, that the church wanted light, and the 
architects had previously furnished the two cardinals with 
a. particular example to prove the basis of the general po* 
sition, which was, that he had walled up a recess for three, 
chapels, and made only three insufficient windows ; upon 
which the pope asked Michel Angelo to give his reasons 
for having done so ; he replied, " I should wish first to 
hear the deputies." Cardinal Marcello immediately said 
for himself and cardinal Saiviati, " We ourselves are the 
deputies." Then said Michel Angelo, " In the part of 
the church alluded to, over those windows are to be placed 
three others." " You never said that before," replied 
the cardinal ; to which he answered with some warmth : 
" I am not, neither will I ever be obliged to tell your 
eminence, or any one else, what I ought or am disposed ' 
to do ; it is your office to see that the money be provided, 
to take care of the thieves, and to leave the building of St. 
Peter's to me," Turning to the pope, " Holy father, you 
see what I gain ; if these machinations to which I am ex- 
posed are not for my spiritual welfare, I lose both my 
labour and my time." The pope replied, putting his 
hands upon his shoulders, " Do not doubt, your gain is 
now, and will be hereafter;" and at the same time gave 
him assurance of his confidence and esteem. 



6 U O N A R R O T I. SOS 

.Julius prosecuted no work in architecture'or sculpture 
without consulting him. What was done in the Vatican, 

1 or in hts villa on the Flaminian way, was with Michel An- 
gelo* s advice and superintendance. He was employed also 
to rebuild a bridge across the Tiber, but as his enemies 
artfully pretended to commiserate his advanced age, he so 
far fell into this new snare as to leave the bridge to be 
completed by an inferior artist, and in five years it was 
washed away by a flood, as Michel Angelo had prophe- 
sied. In 1555 his friend and patron pope Julius died,. 

' and perhaps it would have been happier for Michel Angelo 
if they had ended their days together, for he was now 
eighty-one years old, and the remainder of his life was 
interrupted by the caprices of four successive popes, and 
the intrigues under their pontificates. Under all these 
vexations, however, he went* on by degrees with his great 
undertaking, and furnished designs for various inferior 
works, but his enemies were still restless. He now saw 
that his greatest crime was that of having lived too long ; 
and being thoroughly disgusted with the cabals, he was 
solicitous to resign, that his last days might not be tor- 
mented by the unprincipled exertions of a worthless fac- 
tion. That he did not complain from the mere peevishness 
of age will appear from a statement of the last effort of 
his enemies, the most formidable of whom were the di- 
rectors of the building. Their object was to make Nanni 
Biggio the chief architect, which they carefully concealed, 
and 'the bishop of Ferratino, who was a principal director, 
began the contrivance by recommending to Michel Angelo 
not to attend to the fatigue of his duty, owing to his ad- 
vanced age, but to nominate whomever he chose to supply 
bis place. By this contrivance Michel Angelo willingly 
yielded to so courteous a proposition, and appointed Da- 
niello da Volterra. As soon as this was effected, it was 
roade the basis of accusation against him, for incapacity, 
which left the directors the power of choosing a successor, 
and they immediately superseded da Volterra, by ap- 
pointing Biggio in his stead. This was so palpable a trick, 
so untrue in principle, and so injurious in its tendency, 
that in justice to himself, he thought it necessary to re- 
present it to the pope, at the same time requesting that 
it plight be understood there was nothing he more solicited 
than his dismission. His holiness took up the discussion 
with interest, and begged he would* not recede until he 
Vol, VII. X * 



L 



SO* BUONARROTI. 

bad made proper inquiry, and a day was immediately ap- 
pointed for the directors to meet him. They only stated 
in general terms, that Michel Angelo was ruining the 
building, and that the measures they bad taken were esr 
sentially necessary, but the pope previously sent Sighor 
Gabrio Serbelloni to examine minutely into the affair, 
who was a man well qualified for that purpose. Upon tbi? 
occasion he gave his testimony so circumstantially, that the 
whole scheme was shown in one view to originate in false* 
hood, and to have been fostered by malignity. Biggio 
was dismissed and reprimanded, and the directors apolo<r 
gized, acknowledging, they had been misinformed, but 
Michel Angelo required no apology ; all he desired was, 
that the pope should know the truth ; and he would hav4 
now resigned, had not his holiness prevailed upon him to 
bold his situation, and made a new arrangement, that hi?. 
designs might not only be strictly executed as long as be 
Jived, but adhered to after his death. 

After tins discussion, the time left to Michel Angelo for 
the enjoyment of his uncontrolled authority was $hptf, 
for in the month of February 1£63, he was attacked by a 
slow fever, which exhibited symptoms, of bis approacbiog 
death, and he desired Daniello da Volterra to write to, hi* 
nephew Leonardo Buonarroti to come to Rome ; his fever, 
however, increased, and his nephew not arriving, in tb^- 
presence of his physician and others who were in his house*, 
whom, he ordered into his bed-room, be made this. shoi$ 
nuncupative will: " My soul I resign to God, my body to 
the earth, and my worldly possessions, to my nearest of 
kin '" then admonished bis attendants : " In your passage 
through this life, remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ," 
and soon after delivering this charge, he died, Feb* 17, 
1563, aged eighty-eight years, eleven months, and fifteen 
days, which yet was not the life of his father, who attained 
the age of ninety-two. Thr$e days after his death, hie 
remains were deposited with great funeral pomp in the 
church of S. Apostoli, in Rome, but afterwards, at th«. 
request of the Florentine academy, were removed to th$ 
church of Santa Croce at Florence, and again with gr.efl* 
Solemnity finally deposited in the vault by the side qf the 
altar, called the Altarede Cavalcanti. 

The merits of Michel Angelo, as an artist, have been s<* 
frequently the object of discussion, that it would be in*-.. 
possible to examine or analyse the various opinion* that. 



BUONARROTI 307 

bavfc been published, without extending this article to an 
immoderate length. ' Referring, therefore, to our authori* 
ties, and especially to Mr. Duppa's elaborate " Life of 
Michel Angeio," which we have followed in the preceding 
sketch, we shall present the following outline from Mr. 
Fuseli, and conclude with some interesting circumstances 
in the personal history of this great artist : " Sublimity of 
conception," says Mr, Fuseli, " grandeur of form, and 
breadth of manuer, are the elements of Michel Angeio'* 
style ; by these principles he selected or rejected the ob- 
jects of imitation. As painter, as sculptor, as architect, 
he attempted, and above any other man succeeded, to 
unite magnificence of plan, and endless variety of subor* 
dinslte parts, with the utmost simplicity and breadth. His 
line is uniformly grand. Character and beauty were ad* 
mitted only as far as they could be made subservient to 
grandeur. The child, the female, meanness, deformity,, 
were by him indiscriminately stamped with grandeur. A 
beggar rose from his hand the patriarch of poverty ; the 
hump of his dwarf is impressed with dignity ; his women 
are moulds of generation ; bis infants teem with the man ; 
bis men are a race of giants. This is the ' Terribil Via* 
hinted at by Agostino Carracci. To give the most perfect 
ease to the most perplexing difficulty, was the exclusive 
power of Michel Aogelo. He is the inventor of epic 
painting in the sublime compartments of the Sistine chapel* 
Be has personified motion in the groupes of the Cartoon 
of Pisa ; embodied sentiment on the monuments of St. Lo- 
renzo; unravelled the features of meditation in his Pro* 
pbets and Sibyls ; and, in the Last Judgment, with every 
attitude that varies the human body, traced the master- 
trait of every passion that sways the human heart Neither 
as painter or sculptor he ever submitted to copy an indi- 
vidual, Julio II. only excepted, and in him he represented 
the reigning passion rather than the man. In painting he 
contented himself with a negative colour, and, as the 
painter of mankind, rejected all meretricious ornament; 
The fabric of St. Peter's, scattered into infinity of jarring 
parts by his predecessors, he concentrated, suspended the 
cupola, and to the most complex gave the air of the most 
simple of edifices. Such, take him all in all, was Michel 
Angeio, the salt of art; sometimes he, no doubt, .had 
moments, fcnd perhaps periods of dereliction, deviated into 
Mariner, or perplexed the grandeur of his forms with futila 

x 2 



503 BUONARHOTL 

and ostentatious anatomy ; both met with herds of copyists, 
and it has been his fate to have been and still to be cen- 
sured for their folly." 

Michel Angelo was of the middle stature, bony -in his 
make, and rather spare, although broad over the shoulders; 
He had a good complexion ; his forehead was square, and 
somewhat projecting ; his eyes rather small, of a hazel co- 
lour, and on his brows but little hair ; his nose was flat, 
being disfigured from a Wow he received when young from 
Torrigiano, a fellow student ; his lips were thin, and speak- 
ing anatomically, the cranium on the whole was rather, 
large in proportion to the face. He wore his beard, which 
was divided into two points at the bottom, not very thicfy 
and about four inches long; his beard and the hair of his 
head were black when a young man, and his countenance 
animated and expressive. > 

r In his childhood he was of a weakly constitution, and 
to guard his health with peculiar care, be was abstemious 
and continent ; he seldom partook of the enjoyments of the 
table, and was used to say, " however rich I may have 
been, I have always lived as a poor man*' Although he 
ate little, he was extremely irregular in his meals ; he had 
a bad digestion, and was much troubled with the head-ach, 
which he attributed to his requiring little sleep, and the 
delicate state of his stomach : notwithstanding these evils; 
during the- meridian of life his general health was but little 
impaired. Many years before his death he was afflicted 
with stone and gravel, and when advanced in years, with 
the cramp in his legs. 

In the early part of life, he not only applied himself to 
sculpture and painting, but to every branch of knowledge 
connected in any way with those arts, and gave himself up 
so much to application, that he in a great degree withdrew 
from society. From this disposition he became habituated 
to solitude, and, happy in his pursuits, he was more con- 
tented to be alone than in company, by which he obtained 
the character of being a proud and an odd man. When! 
his mind was matured, he attached himself to men of learn- 
ing and judgment, and in the number of his most intimate 
friends were ranked the highest dignitaries in the church, 
and the most eminent literary characters of his time. 
Among the authors he studied and delighted in most, were 
Dante and Petrarch ; of these it is said he could nearly re- 
peat ail their poems, and many of his sonnets (now re^ 



BUONARHOT V 3^ 

printed in his life by Mr. Duppa) shew how much he de-' 
sired to imitate the poet of Vaucluse. He also 1 studied 
with equal attention the sacred writings of the Old and 
New Testament. His acquirements in anatomy are mani- 
fest throughout his works, and he often proposed to publish' 
a treatise upon that subject for t\\e use of painters and' 
sculptors; principally to shew what muscles were brought 
into action in the various motions of the human body, and 
was only prevented, from fearing lest he should not be able- 
to express himself so clearly and fully as the nature of the 
subject required. — Of perspective he knew as much as was 
fcnown in the age in which he lived ; but this branch of 
knowledge was not then reduced to a science, nor govern-' 
?d by mathematical principles. 

The love of wealth made no part of Michel Angelo's 
character ; he was in no instance covetous of money, nor 
attentive to its accumulation. When he was offered com- 
missions from the rich with large sums, he rarely accepted 
them, being more stimulated by friendship and benevolence 
than the desire of gain. He was also liberal, and freely 
assisted literary men as well as those of his own profession, 
who stood In need of his' aid. He had a great love for his 
art, and a laudable desire to perpetuate his name. A 
friend of his regretted that he had no children to bequeath 
the profits acquired by his profession, to which he answered, 
" My works must supply, their place ; and if they are good 
for any thing, they must live hereafter," He established it 
as a principle, that to live in credit was enough, if life was 
.virtuously and honourably employed for the good of others 
and the benefit of posterity ; and thus he laid up the most 
profitable treasure for his old age, and calculated upon its 
best resources. 

Michel Angelo was never married, and whether he 
was at any time on the point of being so, is not known : that 
he was a man of domestic habits is certain, and he pos- 
sessed ardent and affectionate feelings. Although love is 
the principal subject which pervades his poetry, and Pe- 
trarch the sole object of his imitation, no mention is made 
pf his Laura, his Stella, or Eliza ; her name is concealed if 
she had any ; but the prevalency in his day of consolidating 
,all personal feeling into Platonism, and a species of unin- 
telligible metaphysics, may probably have given birth to 
ftkO$t of his sonnets, 

Jn his professional labours he continued to study to the 



510 BUONARROTI. 

end of bis life, bat neter was satisfied with any thing he 
did : when he saw any imperfection that might have been 
avoided, he easily became disgusted, rather preferring to 
commence bis undertaking entirely anew than attempt an 
emendation. With this operating principle in his mind he 
completed few works in sculpture. Lomazzo tells an 
anecdote, that cardinal Farnese one day found Michel An- 
gelo, when an old man, walking alone in the Colosseum, 
and expressed his surprize at finding him solitary amidst 
the ruins ; to which he replied, " I yet go to school that I 
may continue to learn something. 9 ' Whether the anecdote 
be correctly true or not, it is evident he entertained this 
feeling, for there is still remaining a design by him, of an 
old man with a long beard in a child's go-cart, and an 
hour-glass before him ; emblematical of the last stage of 
life, and on a scroll over his head, Anchora Inparo, de- 
noting that no state of bodily decay or approximation to 
death was incompatible with intellectual improvement. An 
outline of this, as well as of many of the principal works of 
Michel Angelo, is given in his Life by Mr. Duppa, who 
concludes the best and most ample account of any artist 
in our language, with remarking that although Michel An* 
gelo's high T minded philosophy made him often regardless 
of rank and dignity, and his knowledge of human nature 
in one view concentrated the plausible motives and the 
Inconsistent professions of men, yet he was not morose in 
his disposition, nor cynical in his habits. Those who knew. 
him well esteemed him most, and those who were worthy 
of his friendship knew how to value it. The worthless 
flatterers of powerful ignorance, and the cunning, who at 
all times trust to the pervading influence of folly, feared 
and hated him. He was impetuous in the highest degree 
when he felt the slightest attack upon his integrity, and 
hasty in his decisions, which gave him an air of irascibility; 
but to all who were in need of assistance from his fortune 
or his talents he exercised a princely liberality ; and to 
those of honourable worth, however low their station, he 
was kind and benevolent, he sympathized with their dis* 
tresses, nor ever refused assistance to lessen the weight 
of oppression. In the catholic faith of his ancestors he 
was a sincere Christian, and enjoyed its beneficent in- 
fluence : he was not theoretically one man, and practically 
another ; nor was his piety ever subservient to caprice or 



B U R A N A, 3.U 

personal convenience ; his religion was not a? a staff hi 
leaned upon, but the prop by which he was supported. l 

BURANA (John Francis), a native of Verona, who 
flourished in the sixteenth century, was disciple to Bago- 
linus, who explained Aristotle's Logic in the university of 
Bologna. Burana shewed great subtlety in his disputations^ 
which made the scholars very desirous of hearing him read, 
public lectures on this part of philosophy, which he did, 
illustrating his subject from the Greek and Arabian inter* 
preters. H.e had studied Hebrew with great success. Hav- 
ing quitted his profession, he applied himself to the prac- 
tice of physic. He also undertook to translate some trea- 
tises of Aristotle and of Averr/>ea, and to write commen- 
taries on them ; but death hindered him from finishing 
this work. He desired however that it might be printed, 
and charged his heirs to publish it, after his manuscript 
had been corrected by some learned man. Bagolinus un- 
dertook that task, and published the work under the title 
of u Aristotelis Priora resolutoria, &c." Paris, 1539, folio! 
Bayle seems to think there was a prior edition printed 
at Venice j but by Moreri we find that the Paris edition 
was of 1533, and that of Venice of the date above men- 
tioned.* 

BURCHIELLO, an Italian poet, was better known 
under this name than by that of Dominico, which was *his 
true one. Authors differ concerning his country and the 
time of his birth. The opinion most followed is that he 
was born at Florence about 1380. As to the epocha of his 
death, it seems more certain : he died at Rome in 1448. 
This poet was a barber at Florence, and his shop the com- 
mon rendezvous of all the literati of that town. His poems, 
which mostly consist of sonnets, and often very freely 
written, are of the comic and burlesque species ; but s6 
truly original, that some poets who camfc after him have 
endeavoured to imitate him by composing verses alia Bur- 
chiellesca. They are however full of obscurities and 
cenigmas. Some writers have taken the pains to make 
comments on them, and, among others, le Doni ; but the 
commentary is scarcely less obscure than the text. Bur- 
chiello nevertheless holds . a distinguished place among 

1 Life and Literary Works of M. A. Buonarroti by R. Duppa, 1806, 4to.— . 
See also Heads from Michel Angelo, by tbe same author, atlas folio.— Fuseli's. 
edition of Piikington. — Sir Joshua Reynolds's Works. See index. 
' * Gen* t>ict. — Moreri. 



312 B U Jl C H IE L L O. 

the Italian poets of the satirical class. He may be cen- 
surable for not having had sufficient respect for good man- 
ners ; but the licence of this poetical barber was much in . 
the general taste of the times. The best editions of his 
poems are those of Florence, 1552 and 1568, Svo. His 
sonnets were printed for the first time at^ Venice, 1475, 4to. 1 
BURE (William Fkancls de), an eminent bookseller at 
"Paris, is well known to the learned throughout Europe for 
the able assistance he has afforded to the study of biblio- 
graphy. Of his personal history very little is related by 
his countrymen, unless that he was a man of high character 
in trade ; and, as appears from his works, more intimately- 
acquainted with the history of books and editions than per-* 
haps any man of his time in any country.. He died July 
15, 1782. He first published bis " Museum Typographic 
cum," Paris, 1755, 12 mo, a small edition of only twelve 
copies, which he gave away among his friends. It was 
published under the name of G. F. Rebude, and according 
to the Diet. Hist, was repriuted in 1775. Afterwards ap- 
peared the u Bibliographic Instructive,'* 1763 — 68, 7 vols. 
8vo, succeeded by a small volume of a catalogue of the 
anonymous publications, and an "Essay upon Biblio- 
graphy." The merits of this work are universally acknow* 
ledged. The abb6 Rive having attacked this work with 
considerable asperity, De Bure replied in " Appeiaux Sa-« 
vans," 1763, 8vo, and " Reponse a une Critique de la 
Bibliographic Instructive," 1763, 8vo. In 1769 he pub- 
lished the catalogue of Gaignat's library, 2 vols. 8vo, which 
completely established his reputation as a bibliographer. 
He was succeeded in these labours by his cousin William, 
who, with Mons. Van Praet, prepared the catalogue of the 
duke de la Valliere's library in 1783, and published other 
valuable catalogues as late as the year 1801. 2 

BURETTE (Peter Jqhn), born at Paris in 1665, was 
the son of a surgeon, who, not being very prosperous in 
his practice, had recourse for his support to music j and 
first performed, professionally, at Lyons ; and afterwards 
went to Paris and played on ths harp to Louis XIV. who 
was much pleased with his performance. His son, Peter 
John, was so sickly and feeble during infancy, that he 
passed almost his whole youth in amusing himself on the 
spinet, and in the study of music ; but he had so strong a 

i Diet. Hist. — Roscoe's Lorenzo. — Ginguen6 Hist Lit. cTJtalie, vol. III. j>, 481^ 
f Diet. Hist.— Dibdin's Bibliomauia. 



B U RE T T E; SIS 

passion for this instrument, jthat he had scarcely arrived 
at his ninth year when he was heard at court, accom- 
panied by his father on the harp. Two years after, the 
king heard him again, when he performed a duet with 
his father on the harp, and at eleven years of age he 
assisted him in giving lessons to his scholars. His taste 
for music, however, did not extinguish his passion for 
other sciences. He taught himself Latin and Greek with 
little assistance from others ; and the study of these lan- 
guages inclined him to medical inquiries. - At eighteen 
years old he attended, for the first time, the public schools, 
went through a coarse of philosophy, and took Jessons in 
the schools of medicine. And even during this time he 
learned Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Ger- 
man, and English, sufficiently to understand them in 
books. He was at length admitted of the faculty at Paris, 
and practised with reputation during thirty-three years. 
Jin 1705, he was received into the academy of belles- 
lettres, and in 1706 he had a considerable share in the 
{mblication of the " Journal dep S<javans,7 at which he 
aboured more than thirty years. In 1718, he had an ap± 
poiutment in the royal library. The public are obliged to 
the abb£ Fraguier for the learned dissertation which Mi 
Burette produced on the music of the ancients. This 
learned abb6, supposing that the Greeks applied the same 
sense to the word harmony, as is given to it by the mo- 
derns, and that, consequently, they knew counterpoint, 
or music in parts, Burette proved that he was mistaken, 
and that the ancients meant no more by the term harmony, 
than we do by proportion. He demonstrated, that the 
Greeks practised no other simultaneous consonances than 
unisons and octaves. This learned and indefatigable in- 
quirer after the music of the ancient Greeks, was seized^ 
in 1745, with a paralytic affection, and after languishing 
during during the whole year 1746, he died in 1747, at 
eighty-two. His library, consisting of 15,000 volumes, 
was. composed of the most curious and well-chosen books 
that could be procured in all languages. He has supplied 
the Meraoires of the Acad, des inscrip. et belles-lettres 
4 with dissertations on the dancing of the ancients, on play 
pr gaming, on single combat, and on horse-racing, and 
pnriched these memoirs with a translation of Plutarch's 
treatise on music, with notes and remarks. He must be 
ftttoWed, on every subject concerning ancient music, the 



$14 BURETTE. 

toerit of great diligence and learning ; but be does not 
seem always to bave been possessed of an equal share of 
sagacity, or with courage sufficient to confess himself un- 
able to explain inexplicable passages in bis author. He 
never sees a difficulty ; be explains all. Hence, amidst 
great erudition, and knowledge of antiquity, there are 
a thousand unintelligible Explanations in bis notes upon 
Plutarch. 1 

BURGER (Goi>fred Augustus), a German poet of 
considerable celebrity in his own country, and known in 
this by several translations of one of his terrific tales, was 
born in 1748, at Wolmersweade, in the principality of Hal- 
berstadt. His father was a Lutheran minister, and appears 
to bave given him a pious domestic education ; but to school 
or university studies young Burger had an insuperable 
aversion, and much of his life was consumed in idleness 
and dissipation, varied by some occasional starts of in* 
dustry, which produced his poetical miscellanies, prin- 
cipally ballads, that soon became very popular from the 
simplicity of the composition. In the choice of his sub* 
Jects*. likewise, which were legendary tales and traditions, 
wild, terrific, and grossly improbable, he had the felicity 
to hit the taste of his countrymen. His attention was also 
directed to Sbakspeare And our old English ballads, and 
he translated many of the latter into German with consider-* 
able effect. His chief employment, or that from which he 
derived most emolument, was in writing for the German 
Almanack of the Muses, and afterwards the German Mu- 
saeum. In 1787 he lectured on the critical philosophy of 
Kant, and in 1789 was appointed professor of belles-lettres 
in the university of Gottiiigen. He married three wives, 
the second the sister of the first, and the third a lady who 
courted him in poetry, but from whom, after three years 
cohabitation, he obtained a divorce. Her misconduct is 
said to have contributed to shorten his days. He died in 
June 1794. His works were collected and published by 
Reinhard, in 1798' — 99, 4 vols. 8vo, with a life, in which 
there is little of personal history that can be read with 
pleasure. Immorality seems to bave accompanied him the 
greater part of his course, but be was undoubtedly a man 
of genius, although seldom under the controul of judg- 
ment. His celebrated ballad of " Leonora.' y was translated 

> Moreii.— Burney a«d Hawkinf's Hitt of Mosic— Reee's Cyclop©*!** 



B U E GEL 311 

into 'English in 1796, by five or six different poets, and 
for some time pleased by its wild and extravagant horrors ; 
and in 1798, his " Wild Huntsman'* Chase" appeared in 
an English dress; but Burger's style has obtained, perhaps* 
more imitators than admirers, among the former of whom 
may be ranked some caricaturists. 1 
-. BURGESS (Anthony), a Nonconformist clergyman! 
was the son of a schoolmaster at Watford, in Hertfordshire, 
and educated at St. John's college, Cambridge. He af- 
terwards became a fellow of Emanuel college, and took 
his master's degree. He obtained the living of Sutton* 
Col field, in Warwickshire, in 1635, by the death of the 
rev. John Burgess, but no relation. He was afterwards 
one of the assembly of divines, and although inclined to 
conformity before the rebellion, acquired such opinions OH 
the subject as induced him to submit to ejectment after 
the restoration. Dr. H»cket, bishop of Lichfield and 
Coventry, who had a high opinion of his learning, and 
said he was fit for a professor's chair in the university, en* 
deavoured by every argument to retain him in the church) 
but in vain, although Mr. Burgess went to the parish 
church of Tamworth, where he spent the remainder of his 
days, and lived in cordiality with the incumbent. At what 
time he died, is not mentioned. The celebrated Dr. John 
Wallis was his pupil, and says he was " a pious, learned* 
and able scholar, a good disputant, a good tutor, an emi- 
nent preacher, and a sound and orthodox divine/' (See 
Hearne's Langtoft, publisher's appendix to his preface; 
p. cxlviii). His principal works are: 1. " Spiritual Re- 
finings ; or a Treatise of Grace and Assurance," 1658, fol. 
2. " Sermons on John xvii." fol. 1656. 3. " The Doc- 
trine of Original Sin," 1659, fol. 4. u Commentary on 
the 1. and 2. of Corinthians," 1661, 2 vols. fol. with some 
smaller tracts, and several sermons before the long parlia* 
ment. * 

BURGESS (Cornelias), D. D. another Nonconform* 
ist, but of a very different stamp, was descended from the 
Burgesses of Batcomb, in Somersetshire. In 1611 he was 
entered at Oxford, but in what college i? uncertain. He 
translated himself, however, to Wadham, and afterwards 
to Lincoln. When he took orders, he had the rectory of 
St; Magnus, London-bridge, the date of which promotion 

. i life published wilfc Works. * Calamy. 



»1« BUR G E S S. 

i 

is not mentioned, and the living of Watford, in Hertford- 
shire, in 1618. In the beginning of Charies the First's 
reign he became one*of. his chaplains rn ordinary, and in 
J 627 took both degrees in divinity, at which time Dr. 
Prideaux, . the regius professor, told him he was a sorry 
disputant, but might make a good preacher. At this time 
§md for several years after he was a zealous friend to the 
church of England, but either from being disappointed itt 
certain expected preferments, as Wood insinuates, or from 
being vexed, as Calamy says, for opposing archbishop 
Laud's party, he became a powerful advocate for the prin- 
ciples which soon overthrew church and state; and parti- 
cularly directed his attacks against the revenues of deans 
and chapters, and bishops. He procured, however, that 
St. Paul's cathedral might be opened, and himself* ap- 
pointed lecturer there, with a salary of 400Z. and the dean's 
house to reside in. Enriched by this and. similar advan- 
tages, he not only purchased church lands, hut even 
wrote a book in vindication of such purchases.. On the 
restoration, however, he lost all this plunder, to the amount 
of many thousand pounds, and died in extreme poverty, 
June 9, 1665. Calamy, his continuator, and Mr. Neal, 
fe*d great, difficulty in refuting Wood's account of this 
Dr. Burgess. Their strongest plea is, that he was against 
the king's murder, and drew up the paper signed by the 
London ministers to prevent that act. At his death, al- 
though he had been obliged from poverty to dispose of his 
Jibrary, he left some curious editions of the Prayer-book 
to the university of Oxford. He wrote some devotional 
tracts, enumerated by Calamy, and several of the contro- 
versial kind. J 

, BURGESS (Daniel), a dissenting divine of the seven- 
teenth and .eighteenth centuries, a wit himself, and "the 
cause of wit in other men," particularly dean Swift and 
his contemporaries, was born in 1645 at Staines in Mid- 
dlesex, where his father then was minister, but was after- 
wards, at the restoration, ejected for nonconformity from 
the living of ColUngbourne Ducis, in Wiltshire. Daniel 
was educated at Westminster school, and in 1660 went to 
Magdalen-hall, Oxford, but having some scruples of the 
nonconformist stamp, he left the university without a de* 
.- . ■ - • • -■*-*.' 

1 Palmer's Noncon. Memorial.— Neal's Hist, of the Puritans.— Ath. Ox, 
vol. 11. . . ♦ . ; 



BURGESS. SH 

gfee. It would appear, however, that he had taken or-* 
ders*, as we are told that immediately after he was invited 
to be chaplain to a gentleman of Chute in Wiltshire, and 
afterwards to a Mr. Smith of Tedwofth, where he was" 
tutor to that gentleman's son. In 1667, the earl of Orrery^ 
lord president of Munster, took Mr. Burgess over to Ire* 
land, and appointed him master of a school which he had 
established at Charleville for the purpose of strengthening 
the protestant interest in that kingdom, and Mr. Burgess, 
While here, superintended the education of the stfns of 
some of the Irish nobility and gentry. After leaving thfe 
school, he was chaplain to lady Mervin, near Dublin ; : but 
about this time, we are told, he was ordained in Dublin as 
a presbyterian minister, and married a Mrs. Briscoe in that 
city* by whom he had a son and two daughters. 

He resided seven years in Ireland, at the end of which 
he returned, at the request of his infirm father, and not- 
withstanding the strictness of the laws against nonconfor- 
mity, preached frequently in Marlborough in Wiltshire, 
and other places in the neighbourhood. For this he "was 
* imprisoned for some time, but was released upon bail, and 
in 1685 came to London; and the dissenters now having 
more liberty, his numerous admirers hired a meeting for 
him in Brydgej-street, Covent- garden. " Being situ- 
ated," says one of his biographers, " in the neighbour- 
hood of the theatre, and surrounded by many who are fools 
enough to mock at sin and religion, he frequently had 
among his hearers those who came only to make themselves 
merry at the expence of religion, dissenters, and Daniel 
Burgess. This his undaunted courage, his pointed wit, and 
ready elocution, turned to great advantage : /or -he fre- 
quently fixed his eye on those scoffers, and addressing 
them personally in a lively, piercing, and serious manner, 
was blessed to the conversion of many who came only to 
ihock." Much of this may be true, but it cannot, on the 
other hand, be denied that Daniel provoked the mirth of 
his hearers by a species of buffoonery in language, to 
laugh at which was not necessarily connected with any con- 
tempt for religion. 

He continued as a pastor over this congregation for thirty 
years, during which a new place of worship was built by 
them in Carey-street, and when much injured, or as it is 
called, gutted, by Dr. Sacheverell's mob, was repaired at 
the expence of government. Hq died January 1712-13* 



2[i& BURGESS. 

in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in St. 
Clement Panes, Strand. It has escaped the notice of his 
biographers, that the celebrated lord Bolingbroke* was 
once bis pupil, and the world has perhaps to regret that 
his lordship did not learn what Daniel Burgess might have 
taught him, for Daniel, with all his oddities, which made 
bitty for so many years the butt of Swift, Steele, and the 
other wits of the time, was a man of real piety. Unfor- 
tunately, like his successor Bradbury, he had a very con* 
sideraWe portion of wit, which he could not restrain, and' 
where he thought an argument might be unsuccessful, he 
tried a pun. One of his biographers has furnished us with" 
two instances that may illustrate the general character of' 
his preaching. — When treating on " the robe of righteous- 
ness, 9 ' he , said, " If any of you would have a good and 
cheap suit, you will go to Monmouth-street ; if you want 
a suit fpr life, you will go to the court of chancery ; but if 
you wish for a suit that will last to eternity, you must go 
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and put on his robe of righteous- 
ne$s." In the reign of king William, be assigned a new 
motive for the people of God who were the descendants of 
Jacob, being called Israelites ; namely, because God did 
not choose that his people should be called Jacobites ! His 
works were numerous, but principally single sermons, 
preached on funeral and other occasions, and pious tracts. 
One of his sermons is entitled " The Golden Snuffers,'* 
and was the first sermon preached to the societies for the 
reformation of manners- It is a fair specimen of Daniel's 
method and style, being replete with forced puns and' 
quaint sayings, and consequently, in our opinion, better 
adapted to amusement than edification. l - 

BURGH (James), a moral and political writer, was 
born at Madderty, in Perthshire, Scotland, in the latter 
end of the year 1714. His father was minister of that 
parish, and his mother was aunt to the celebrated historian 
Dr. Robertson. His grammatical education he received 
at the school of the place which gave him birth, where he 
discovered such a quickness aud facility in imbibing lite** 

* In 1702 Mr. Burgess's only son tary and reader to the princess Sophia, 

was made commissioner of prizes ; and It is not improbable that he might 

in 1714, ab»ut a year after hi* father's owe these promotions to, lord Boling- 

death, he resided at Hanover, as secre- broke. 

1 Prot Dissenters' Magazine, vol VL— --Bogue's Hist of the Dissenters, vol. 
It.— Henry's Funeral Sermon for Burgess.-— Swift's Work*, see Index,— Tatiej* 
with Annotation*, vol. II, and IV, 



B U R Q H. 319 

rary instruction, that bis master used to say, that bis scho- 
lar would soon acquire all the knowledge that it was in his 
power to communicate. In due time young Burgh was 
removed to the University of St. Andrew's, with a view of 
becoming a clergyman in the church of Scotland ; but he 
did not continue long at the college, on account of a bad 
state of health, which induced him to lay aside the thoughts 
of the clerical profession, and enter into trade, in the linen, 
way ; which he was enabled to do with the greater prospect 
of advantage, as he had lately obtained a handsome for* 
tune by the death of his eldest brother. In business, how-* 
ever, he was not at all successful ; for, by giving injudi- 
cious credit, he was soon deprived of his property. Not 
long after this misfortune, he came to London, where bit 
first employment was to correct the press for the celebrated 
Mr. Bowyer ; and at his leisure hours he made indexes. 
After being engaged about a year in this way, during which 
he became acquainted with some friends who were highly 
serviceable to him in his future plans of life, he removed 
to Great Marlow, in Buckinghamshire, as an assistant at 
the free grammar-school of that town ; and whilst he con- 
tinued in this situation, the school is said to have been 
considerably increased. During his residence at Marlow, 
be met with only one gentleman who was suited to his own 
turn of mind. With that gentleman, who was a man of 
piety, and of extensive reading in divinity r though no clas- 
sical scholar, he contracted a particular friendship. At 
Marlow it was that Mr. Burgh first commenced author, by 
writing a pamphlet, entitled " Britain's Remembrancer,"' 
and which was published, if we mistake not, a little after 
the beginning of the rebellion, in 1745. This tract con- 
tained an enumeration of the national blessings and deliver- 
ances which Great Britain bad received ; with pathetic ex- 
hortations to a right improvement of them, by a suitable 
course of piety and virtue. It appeared without Mr. 
Bqrgh's name, as was the case with his works in general, 
and was so much read and applauded by persons of a re- 
ligious temper, that it went through five editions in little 
more than two years, was reprinted in Scotland, Ireland, 
and America, and again in London 1766. Mr. Barker, at 
that time one of the most eminent ministers among the 
protestant dissenters in London, spoke highly of it, in a 
(armon preached at Salters'-ball ; and publicly thanked 



820 BURGH, 

the unknown author, for so seasonable and useful a per- 
formance. 

Mr. Burgh being of a sociable disposition, and not meet- 
ing, at Marlow, with company which was suited to his libe- 
ral taste, he quitted that place, and engaged himself as an 
assistant to Mr. Kenross at Enfield. Here he remained 
only one year; for, at the end of that term, Mr. Kenross 
very generously told him, that he ought no longer to losd 
his time, by continuing in the capacity of an assistant ; 
thkt it would be adviseable for him to open a boarding- 
school for himself; and that, if he stood in need of it, he 
would assist him with money for that purpose. Accord* 
ingly, in 1747, Mr. Burgh commenced master of an aca- 
demy at Stoke Newington, in Middlesex ; and in that year 
he wrote " Thoughts on Education," The next produc- 
tion of his pen was u An hymn to the Creator* of the 
world," to which was added in prose, " An Idea of the 
Creator^ from his works." A second edition, in 8vo, was 
printed in 1750. After Mr. Burgh had continued at Stoke 
Newington three years, his house not being large enough 
to contain the number of scholars that were offered to him, 
he removed to a more commodious one at Newington- 
green, where, for nineteen years, he carried on his school 
with great reputation jmd success. Few masters, we be- 
lieve, ever existed, who have been animated with a more 
ardent solicitude for forming the morals as well as the 
understandings of their scholars.. In 1751, Mr. Burgh 
married Mrs. Harding, a widow lady, and a woman of ex- 
cellent sense and character, who zealously concurred with 
him in promoting all his laudable and useful undertakings: 
In the same year, at the request of Dr. Stephen Hales, 
and Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich/ he published a small 
piece, in 12mo, entitled " A Warning to Dram Drinkers." 
Our author's next publication was his great work, entitled 
" The Dignity of Human Nature ; or, a brief account of 
the certain and established means for attaining the true 
end of our existence." This treatise appeared in 1754, 
in one volume quarto, and has since been reprinted in two 
volumes octavo. It is divided into four books, in which 
the author treats distinctly concerning prudence, know- 
ledge, virtue, and revealed religion ; and makes a greafr 
number of important observations under each of these 
beads. In 1762 Mr. Burgh published, in octavo, "The 



BURGH. „ 321 

Art of Speaking ;" consisting, first, of an essay, in which 
• are given rules for expressing properly thct-principal pas- 
sions and humours that occur in reading, or in public elo- 
cution; and secondly, of lessons taken from the ancients 
and moderns, exhibiting a variety of matter for practice. 
The essay is chiefly compiled from Cicero, Quitttilian, and' 
other rhetorical writers. In the lessons, the emphatical' 
words are printed in Italics, and marginal notes are added 
to shew the various passions, in the several examples, as * 
they change from one .to another. It is evident, from an 
inspection of this work, that it must have cost our author* 
no small degree of labour. It has gone through three- 
editions, and was much used as a school-book. The late 
sir Francis Blake Delaval; who had studied the subject of 
elocution, and who had distinguished himself in the pri- 
vate acting of several plays in conjunction with some other' 
persons of fashion, had so high an opinion of Mr. Burgh's 
performance, that be solicited on that account an inter*' 
view with him. Our author's next appearance in the lite- 
rary world was in 1766, in the publication of the first vo- 
lume, in 1.2mo, of" Crito, or Essays on various subjects.** 
To this volume is prefixed a dedication, not destitute of 1 
humour, " To the rjght rev. father (of three years old) his 
royal highness Frederic bishop of Osnaburgh." The essays 
ate three in number ; the first is of a political nature ; the 
second is. on the difficulty ajid importance of education, 
and contains many pertinent remarks, tending to shew 
that Mons. Rousseau's proposals on this head are improper, 
ineffectual, or impracticable ; and the third is upon the 
origin of evil. In this essay Mr. Burgh has collected to- 
gether and arranged, though with but little regard to order, 
the sentiments of many writers, both ancient and modem, 
on the subject, and endeavoured to shew the inconsistency 
of their reasonings. His own opinion is, that the natural 
and moral evil which prevails in the world, is the effect of 
the hostility of powerful, malignant, spiritual beings ; and 
tbat Christianity is the deliverance of the human species 
from this peculiar and adventitious distress, as an enslaved 
nation is by a patriotic hero delivered from tyranny. In 
1767 came put the second volume of " Crito," with a long 
dedication (which , is replete with shrewd and satirical ob* 
servations, chiefly of a* political kind) to the good people 
of Britain of the twentieth century. The rest of the vo- 
lume contains another " Essay on the Origin of Evil," and 
Vol. VII. Y 



322 B tT R G H. 

the rationale of Christianity, and a postscript, consisting of 
farther explanations of the subjects before considered, and 
of detached remarks on various matters. If our author* 
has not succeeded in removing the difficulties which re- 
late to the introduction of evil into the world, and to the 
ceconomy of the gospel, it may be urged in his favour, 
that he is in the same case with many other ingenious phi- 
losophers and divines. ■' *■ 
Mr. Burgh having, for many years, led a very laborious 
life, and having acquired also a competent, though not a 
large fortune (for his mind was always far raised above! 
pecuniary views), he determined to retire from business. 
In embracing this resolution, it was by no means his in- 
tention to be unemployed. What he had particularly iri j 
contemplation was, to complete his "Political Disquisi- 
tions," for which he had, during ten years, been collect-* 
ing suitable materials. Upon quitting his school at New- ' 
ington-green, which was in 1771, he settled in a house at 
Colefcrooke-row, Islington, where he continued till his 
decease. He had not been long in his new situation before 
he became convinced (of what was only suspected before) 
that he had a stone in his bladder. With this dreadful 
malady he was deeply afflicted the four latter years of bis 
life ; and for the two last of these years his pain was ex- 
quisite. Nevertheless, to the astonishment of all who 
were witnesses of the misery be endured, he w£nt on with 
his u Political Disquisitions." The two first volumes were 
published in 1774, and the third volume in 1775. Their 
title is, " Political Disquisitions : or, an enquiry into pub-' 
lie errors, defects, and abuses. Illustrated by, and esta- 
blished upon, facts and remarks extracted from a variety 
of authors ancient and modern. Calculated to draw the 
timely attention of government and people to a due con- 
sideration of the necessity and the means of reforming' 
those errors, defects, and abuses ; of restoring the consti- 
tution, and saving the state." The first volume relates to 
government in general, and to parliament in particular; 
the second treats of places and pensions, the taxation of 
the colonies, and the army ; and the third considers man- 
ners. It was our author's intention to have extended his' 
Disquisitions to some other subjects, if he had not been 
prevented by the violence of his disease, the tortures, of 
which he bore with uncommon patience and resignation, 
and from which he was happily released, on the 26th of 



BURGH. 322 

August, 1775, in the sixty-first year of his age* Besides 
the publications already mentioned, and a variety of ma- 
nuscripts which he left behind him, he wrote, in 1753 and 
1754, some letters in the General Evening Post, called 
*' The Free Enquirer;" and in 1770, a number of papers 
entitled " The Constitutionalist," in the Gazetteer ; which 
Were intended to recommend annual parliaments, adequate 
representation, and a place bill. About the same time he 
also published another periodical paper in the Gazetteer, 
tinder the title of " The Colonist's Advocate ;" which was 
written against the measures of government with respect, 
to the colonies. He printed likewise for the sole use of 
his pupils, " Directions, prudential, moral, religious, and 
scientific ;" which were pirated by a bookseller, and sold 
Under the titlte of " Youth's friendly Monitor." 

With regard to Mr. Burgh's character, he was a man of 
great piety, integrity, and benevolence. He bad a warmth 
of heart which engaged him to enter ardently into the pro* 
secution of any valuable design ; and his temper was com* 
inunicative, and chearful. Whilst his health permitted itj 
he had great pleasure in attending a weekly society of 
some friends to knowledge, virtue, and liberty, among 
whom were several persons of no small note in the philo- 
sophical and literary world. He had once the honour of 
being introduced to his present majesty, when prince of 
Walesy and to the late princess dowager of Wales, from 
wJbofn he met with a most gracious reception, and with 
v^bocn he had much discourse on the subject of education* 
a,hd other important topics. In his compositions, our au- 
thor paid greater regard to strength than elegance ; and 
he. despised, perhaps unjnstly, that nice attention to ar- 
rangement of language which some writers think desirable ; 
and which is indeed desirable, when thereby the force and 
vigour of style are not obstructed. Mr. Burgh's widow 
died in 17S8. 1 . 

BURIDAN (John), a Frenchman, born at Bethune in 
Artoi^ was a renowned philosopher or schoolman of the 
fourteenth fcentury. He discharged a professor's place in 
the university of Paris with great reputation; and wrote 
commentaries on Aristotle's logic, ethics, and metaphy- 
sics, which were much- esteemed. Some say that he was 
rector of the university of Paris in 1320. Aventine relates, 

i Biog. Brit, with so^ie corrertiori* aiiffi&iHtioiitfrom Nicfeolt's Bowyer. 

Y 2. 



324 BURIDA N. 

that he was a disciple of Ockam ; and that, being expelled 
Paris by the power of the realists, which was superior to 
that of the nominalists, he went into Germany, where be 
founded the university of Viepna. " Buridan's Ass/ 9 ha* 
been a kind of proverb a long time in the schools ; though 
nobody has ever pretended to explain it, or. to determine 
with certainty what it meant. He supposed an ass, very 
hungry, standing betwixt two bushels of oats perfectly 
equal ; or an ass, equally hungry and thirsty, placed 
betwixt a bushel of oats and a tub of water, bqth making 
an equal impression on his organs. After this supposition 
he used to ask, What will this ass do ? If it was answered, 
He will remain there as he stands : Then, concluded he, 
he will die of hunger betwixt two bushels of oats ; he will 
die of hunger and thirst with plenty of 'food aud drink 
before him. This seemed absurd, and the laugh was 
wholly on his side : But, if it. was answered, This ass will 
not^be so stupid as to die of hunger and thirst with such 
good provision on each side of it : then, concluded he, 
this ass has free will, or of two weights in equilibre one 
inay stir the other. Leibnitz, in his Theodicea, confutes 
this fable,; he supposes the ass to be between two meadows, 
and equally inclining to both : concerning this he says, it 
is a fictiqn which, in the present course of nature, cannot 
subsist. Indeed, were the case possible, we must say, that 
the creature would suffer itself to die of hunger. But the 
Question turns on an impossibility, unless God should purr 
jpo^ely interfere to prodqce sych a thing; (or the universe 
cannot be $o divided, by a plane drawn through the mid- 
dle, of the as5, cut vertically in i,ts leogth, so that every 
thing. op each side shall be alike and similar;, for neither 
the parts pf the universe, ror the 'animal's viscera, are si* 
pillar, nqr in an equal situation on both sides of this ver* 
tical plane. Therefore wilJL there always be nnany things, 
within and without the ass, which, though imperceptible 
to ys, will, determine it tft.takf to pn^ side more than the 

other.. ,AAe* a ^ d** 3 * ™ l ye Wf edifyiqg.djsc»$sion,..tba 
world mu^t, cpnfess its obligations tp Burvdan for pne of the 
ipost qommqi) proved 8 *. 4^99ting hesitation ip .determine 
iqg between two objiepts of equal or ij$*rly equal value. ' . 
£UftJG|NY (LEyE^QUEp^.was bprn^at Rbei«is in 1691, 
Wk.1WJMVfi& °f x k<t axjadepiy.of bell^n^itreft ftt Earw, 



BURI6NY. 32* 

He died in that city Oct. 8,1785, at the age of ninety- 
four, at that time the father of French literature, and 
perhaps the oldest author in. Europe. His great tran- 
quillity of mind, and the ' gentleness of his disposition, 
procured him the enjoyment of a long and pleasant old 
age. In his youth he passed some time in Holland, and 
was a writer in the Journal de 1' Europe; On his return hfe 
was much caressed by the learned, and in his latter days 
had a pension of 2000 livres granted, without any appli- 
cation, by the last king of France. At ninety-two his 
health was robust, his memory extensive, and he composed 
and wrote with facility. His works are, 1. c< A treatise on 
the Authority of the Popes," 1720, 4 vols. 12mo. 2. "His- 
tory of the Pagan Philosophy," 1724, 12 mo, a learned 
performance, published in 1754 under the title of "Th6o- 
logie paienne." 3. "General History of Sicily," 1745, 
2 vols. 4to. 4. " Porphyry on Abstinence from Meats,** 
•1747,* 12mo. 5. " History of the Revolutions of Constan- 
tinople," 3 vols. 12mo, 1750. 6. " Life of Grotius," 1754 f 
2 vols. 12mo.~ 7. u Life of Erasmus," 1757, 2 vols. 12ma. 
8. u Life of Bossuet," 1761, 12mo. 9. " Life of cardinal 
du Perron," 1768, 12mo. The Historical works of M. de 
Burigny are esteemed for the accuracy and abundance of 
the facts they contain. But he is a cold narrator ; has but 
little force and. expression in his portraits, and is some- 
times rather prolix iYi his details. His Life of Grotius is a 
very valuable work, and was published in English in 1754, 
Bvo. For that of Erasmus, Dr. Jortin may be consulted. l 

BURKE (Edmund), was one of the mo§t distinguished 
politicians and political writers of the last century, whose 
life, it has been long expected, would havei been written 
by those to whom he entrusted the care of his fame. No- 
thing, however, has yet appeared, except compilations 
by strangers, from public documents and records, pub- 
lished to gratify present curiosity. Some of these, how- 
ever, are written with care and ability, and must form the 
basis of the following sketch. 

Mr. Burke's biographers are not agreed as to his birth- 
place. Some say he was born in the city of Dublin; others, 
in a little town in the County of Cork ; but all are agreed 
in the date, Jan. V, 17 SO. ' Hts father was an attorney of 
' considerable practice, who had married into the ancient 

i DickHwfc • 



326 BURKE. 

and respectable family of the Nagles, and beside? the ret 
suits of his practice, possessed a small estate of 1 50/. ox 
200l. a year. Edmund Was his second son, and at a very 
early age, was sent to Balytore school; a seminary in the 
North of Ireland, well known for having furnished the bar 
and the pulpit of Ireland with many eminent characters* 
This school has been kept by quakefs for near a century ; 
and the son of Mr. Abraham Shackleton, . to whom Mr. 
Burke was a pupil, has been for these many years past the 
head-master. It has been creditable to both parties (viz. 
the present preceptor and the quondam pupil of bis father), 
that the strictest friendship has always subsisted between 
them ; not only by a constant correspondence, but by oc- 
casional visits. At this school young Burke soon distin* 
guished himself by an ardent attachment to study, a 
prompt command of words, and a good taste. His me- 
mory unfolded itself very early, and he soon became dis- 
tinguished as (what was called) the best capper of verses m 
the school; but as this phrase is not so generally known jn 
England as in Ireland, it may be necessary to explain it : — 
What is called capping of verses is repeating any one line 
out of the classics, and following it up by another, begin* 
ning with the same letter with which the former line ended; 
for instance, 

JEqvnm memento rebus in ardui* 
S ervare mentem, non secus in bonis. 

This was carried on, in the way of literary contest, 
between two boys, which begat an emulation for reading 
above the ordinary line of duty, and at the same time 
called out and strengthened the powers of memory. Burke 
not only took the lead in this, but in all general exercises : 
he was considered as the first Greek and Latin scholar j to 
these he added the study of poetry and belles lettresj 
an<J, before he. left the school, produced a play in three 
acts, founded oti some incidents in the early part of the 
history of England, of which little is now remembered, 
unless that Alfred formed the principal character, and th^t* 
this part contained many sublime sentiments on liberty. 

Before be left Balytore school his elder brother died, 
Which determined his father to send Edmund to the uni* 
versity. He was accordingly entered of Trinity college, 
Dublin, where some say he pursued his studies with the 
same unceasing application as at school; while Goldsmith, 
and others, his contemporaries, assure as that he displayed 



BURKE. 327 

no particular eminence in the performance of his exercises* 
Both accounts may be, in some measure, true. Burke 
might have pursued his studies! those desultory studies 
which occupied the time of Milton and Dryden at Cam* 
bridge, and of Johnson and Gibbon at Oxford, without 
much desire to obtain academical distinctions. We are 
told, however, that he applied himself with sufficient di- 
ligence to those branches of mathematical and physical 
science which are most subservient to the purposes of life ; 
and though he neglected the syllogistic logic of Aristotle, 
he cultivated the method of induction pointed out by 
Bacon. Pneumatology likewise, and ethics, occupied a 
considerable portion of his attention ; and whilst attending 
to the acquisition of knowledge, he did not neglect the 
means of communicating it. He studied rhetoric, and 
the art of composition, as well as logic, physics, history, 
and moral philosophy ; and, according to one of his bio* 
graphers, had at an early part of his life planned a con- 
futation of the metaphysical theories of Berkeley and 
Hume. For such a task as this, Dr. Gleig (in the welU 
written life of Burke inserted in the Supplement to the 
lCncycL Britannica) doubts whether nature intended him, 
Through the ever active mind of Burke ideas seem to have 
flowed with too great a rapidity to permit him to give that 
patient attention to minute distinctions, without which It 
is vain to attempt a confutation of the subtleties of Berke- 
ley and Hume. Dr. Reid, the ablest antagonist of these 
two philosophers, was remarkable for patient thinking, and 
even apparent slowness of apprehension; and we have 
not a doubt, but that if he had possessed the rapidity of 
thought which characterised Burke, his confutation of 
Hume and Berkeley would have been far from conclusive. 
In 1749 we find Burke employed in a way more suitable 
to his talents, and more indicative of his future pursuits. 
At thatLperiod Mr. Lucas, afterwards Dr. Lucas, a political 
m apothecary, wrote a number of papers against government, 
and acquired by them as great popularity in Dublin, as 
Wilkes afterwards obtained by his North Briton in London. 
Burke, although young, perceived almost intuitively^ the 
^pernicious tendency of Lucas's effusions, and resolve^ to 
counteract it, which he did by writing several essays in the 
style of Lucas, imitating it so exactly as to deceive the 
public, and pursuing hjis principles to consequences ne- 
cessarily resulting frorp them, which demonstrated their 



3 



28 BURKE, 



absurdity. This was the first instance of that imitative 
skill which he afterwards displayed in a mimicry of Bo- 
lingbroke ; and it has been observed, that his first literary 
effort, like his last, was calculated to guard his country 
against anarchical innovations. 
' According to some accounts, he went from Dublin, 
where there was little prospect of a settlement adequate to 
his talents and wishes, to London, where he entered him- 
self as a student in the IVIiddle Temple. According to 
other accounts, however, he was by design or accident at 
Glasgow, where he became a candidate for the professor- 
ship of logic, then vacant, but whether the application 
was made too late, or that the university was tfnwilling to • 
receive a stranger, certain it is that he was unsuccessful. 
One account says, that he was passing the old college 
gate, when a label affixed to it struck his eye, which had 
been pasted up as a mere matter of form, inviting all can-; 
didates for the professorship to a competition, although it 
was known that a successor was already fixed upon. If 
this be the fact, Mr. Burke's mistake must have been very 
soon rectified, without his having the mortification of a 
disappointment after trial. 

It is certain, however, that about 1753 he came to Lon- 
don, and entered himsejf, as already noticed, as a student 
cf the Middle Temple, where he is said to have studied, 
*s in every other situation, with unremitting diligence* 
Many of his habits and conversations were long remem- 
bered at the ^Grecian coffee-house (then the great ren- 
dezvous of the students of the Middle Temple), and they 
were such as were highly creditable to his morals and his 
talents. With the former, indeed, we should not know 
how to reconcile a connection imputed to him at this time 
with Mrs. Woffington, the actress, if we gave credit to the 
report ; but it is not very likely, that, one in Mr. Burke's 
narrow circumstances would have been admitted to more 
than a slight acquaintance with a lady of that description. • 
Though by the death of his elder brother, he was to have 
succeeded to a very comfortable patrimony, yet as his 
father was living, and had other children, it could not be 
supposed that his allowance was very ample. This urged 
him to draw upon his genius for the deficiency of fortune, 
and we are told that he became a frequent contributor to 
the periodical publications. His first publication is. said to 
have been a poem^ which did not succeed. There is rt& 



BURKE. 329 

certain information, however, concerning these early pro^ 
(tactions, unless that he found it necessary to apply with 
so much assiduity as to injure his health. A dangerous 
illness ensued, and he resorted for medical advice to Dr, 
Nugent, a physician whose skill in his profession was 
equalled only by the benevolence of his heart. He was, 
if we are not mistaken, a countryman of Burke 1 s, a Roman 
catholic, and at one time an author by profession. This 
benevolent friend,* considering that the noise and various 
disturbances incidental to chariibers, must retard the re- 
covery of his patient, furnished him with apartments in 
his own house, where the attention of every member of 
the family contributed more than medicine to the recovery 
of his health. It was during this period that the amiable 
manners of miss Nugent, the doctor's daughter, made a 
deep impression on the heart of Burke ; and as she could 
aot be insensible to such merit as his, . they felt for each 
other a mutual attachment, and were fnarried soon after 
bis recovery. With this lady he appears to have enjoyed 
uninterrupted felicity. He often declared to his intimate 
friends, " That, in all the anxious moments of his public 
life, every care vanished when he entered his own house.'* 
Mr. Burke's first known publication, although not im- 
mediately known, was his very happy imitation of Boling- 
broke, entitled "A Vindication of Natural Society," 1756, 
8?o. To assume the style and character of such a writer, 
who had passed through all the high gradations of official 
knowledge for near half a century, a fine scholar, a most 
ready and eloquent speaker, and one of the best writers of 
bis time, was, perhaps, one of the boldest attempts etfer 
undertaken, especially by a young man, a stranger to the 
manners, habits, and connections of the literati of this 
country, who could have no near view of the great cha- 
racter he imitated, arid whose time of life would not per- 
mit of those long and gradual experiments by which excel- 
lence of any kind is to be obtained. Burke, however, was 
not without success in his great object, which ^as to ex- 
pose the dangerous tendency of lord BolingbroWs philo- 
sophy. When this publication firstappeared, we are told 
that almost every body received it as thp posthumous worjk 
of lord Bolirtgbroke, and it was praised up to the standard, 
of his 'best writings! "The critics knew the turn of his 
periods; his style?; Ms phrases? arird' above all; the matdi- 
l$ss dexterity of his metaphysical pen : and amongst these, 



. I 



SSQ BURKE. 

nobody distinguished himself more than the lately departed 
veteran of the stage, Charles Macklin; who, with the 
pamphlet in his hand, used frequently to exclaim at the 
Grecian coffee-house (where he gave a kind of literary law 
to the young Templars at that time), " Oh ! sir, this must 
be Harry Bolingbroke: I know him by his cloven foot." 
.But much of this account is mere assumption. Macklin, 
and such readers as Macklin, might be deceived ; but no 
man was deceived whose opinion deserved attention. Hie 
public critics certainly immediately discovered the imita- 
tion, and one at least of them was not very well pleased 
with it We are told, indeed, that lord Chesterfield' and 
bishop Warburton were at first deceived; but this provds 
only the exactness of the imitation ; a more attentive per- 
usal discbvered the writer's real intention. 

The next production of Mr. Burke's pen was " A Phi- 
losophical Enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the 
Sublime and Beautiful," 1756, 8vo, which soon engaged 
all readers who had the least pretensions to taste or science. 
Beside possessing novelty of opinion in many particulars, 
this book attracted by its style and ingenuity of reasoning : 
every body read it ; and even those who could not assent 
to many of the general principles, concurred in praising 
the author for talents of a very extraordinary kind. A cri^ 
ticism on it, ascribed to Johnson, but really written by 
Mr. Murphy, concludes in the following manner : " Upon 
the whole, though we think the author of this piece mis- 
taken in many of his fundamental principles, and also in 
his deductions from them, yet we must say, we have read 
bis book with pleasure. He has certainly employed much 
thinking : there are many ingenious and elegant remarks, 
which, though they do not enforce or improve bis first posi- 
tion, yet, considering them detached from his system* they 
are new and just. And we cannot dismiss this article with- 
out recommending a perusal of the book to all our readers; as 
we think they will be recompensed by a great deal of sen- 
timent, perspicuous, elegant, and harmonious style, iii mtt- 
hy passages both sublime and beautiful /'* Some time' after 
this, Mr. Burke, who had devoted much of his time tfr the 
stydy of history and politics, proposed to Mr. Dodsley, thfe 

<)lan of an " Annual Register" of the civil, political, and 
it&ary transactions of the times; and the proposal beiog 
acceded to, the work was begun, and carried on fm man? 



BURKE. m 

j€*xa> either by Mr. Burke himself, or under his immer 
diate inspection, and was uncommonly successful. 

The celebrity of such works soon made Mr. Burke known 
to the literati ; amongst whom were the late George lord 
.Lyttelton, the right honourable William Gerard Hamilton, 
the late Dr. Markham, archbishop of York, Dr. Johnson, 
sir Joshua Reynolds, and many other eminent characters, 
who were proud to patronise a young man of such good 
private character, and such very distinguished talents. l£ 
.was in consequence of these connections that we soon after 
.find Mr. Burke in the suite of the earl of Halifax, ap- 
pointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, October 1761. Here, 
by his talents, as well as by his convivial and agreeable 
jnanners, he made himself not only useful at the castle, but 
renewed and formed several valuable acquaintances. 

Before he left Ireland he had a pension settled on him, 
on that establishment* of 200/. per year (some say 300/.), 
which was said to be obtained through the interest of the 
right hon. William Gerard Hamilton, the official secretary 
to the lord lieutenant. Report said at the same time, tha^t 
Mr. Burke had obliged Mr. Hamilton in turn, by writing 
that celebrated speech for him, which (as he had uever 
afterwards spoken another of such consequence) procured 
him through life the name of " Single Speech Hamil* 
ton." This, however, although talked of in the better 
circles of that day, is totally without foundation, nor is it 
strictly true, as will be noticed in that gentleman's article, 
thaf Mr. Hamilton spoke only once. The connection, how- 
ever, between these gentlemen did npt last very long ; for 
* few years afterwards, on some political contest, Mr. Hat 
inilton telling Mr. Burke, as coarsely, as it was unfounded, 
" that he took him frpw a garret," the. latter very spiritedly 
replied, " Then, sir, by your own confession, it was I that 
Ascended to know you." — He at the same time flung up 
J)is pension ; and a coolness, it is said, ever after subsisted 
between them. Mr. Malone, however, in his late Life of 
Mr* Hamilton, takes no notice of his connection with Burke. 
\ Mr. Burke's fame as a writer was now established j and 
what added another wreath to this character were som$ 
$>*mphlets written before the peace of 1763. These intro- 
duced him to the acquaintance of the late Mr. Fitzherbertg 
father of the present lord St* Helen's; a gentleman who 
esteemed and protested men.otMter*; ^dcL yy ho po^^s^^ 



533 * B URKE. 

with a considerable share of elegant knowledge, taletits for 
conversation which were very rarely equalled. Through 
the medium of Mr. Fitzherbert, and owing to some 'po- 
litical essays in the Public Advertiser, he became ac- 
quainted with the late marquis of Rockingham, and the 
late lord Verney ; events which opened the first great* 
dawn of his political life : and soon after his acquaintance 
with lord Rockingham, a circumstance took place which 
gave this nobleman an opportunity to draw forth Mr* 
Burke's talents. The administration formed in 1763, un- 
der the honourable George Grenville, becoming unpopular 
from various causes, his majesty, through the recommen- 
dation of his uncle, the duke of Cumberland, appointed a 
new ministry, of which the duke of Grafton and general 
Gonway were secretaries of state, and the marquis of Rock- 
ingham first lord of the treasury. In this arrangement, 
which took place in 1765, Mr. Burke was appointed pri- 
vate secretary to the marquis of Rockingham, and sooii 
after, through the interest of lord Verney, was returned 
one of the representatives in parliament for the borough of 
Wendover in Buckinghamshire. On this he prepared him- 
self for becoming a public speaker, by studying, still more 
closely than he had yet done, history, poetry, and philo- 
sophy ; and by storing his mind with facts, images, rea- 
sonings, and sentiments. He paid great attention likewise 
to parliamentary usage ; and was at much pains to become 
acquainted with old records, patents, and precedents, so 
as to render himself complete master of the business of 
office. That he might communicate without embarrassment 
the knowledge which he had thus acquired; he frequented, 
with many other men of eminence, the Robin Rood so- 
ciety; and, thus prepared, he delivered in the ensuing 
session his maiden speech, which excited the admiration 
of the house, and drew very high praise from Mr. Pitt, 
afterwards earl of Chatham. The proceedings of the ad- 
ministration with which Mr. Burke was connected, belong 
to history ; and it may be sufficient here to notice, that 
the principal object which engaged their attention was the 
stamp-act, which had excited great discontents in Ame- 
rica. Mr. Grenville and his party, under whose auspices 
this act was passed, were for inforcing it by coercive mea- 
sures ; and Mr. Pitt and his followers denied that' the par- 
liament of Great Britain had a right to tax the American's: 
By Mr. Burke's advice, as it has been said, the marquis 



I 





BURK?. SSS 

of Rockingham' adopted a middle * course, repealing the 
act to gratify the Americans, and passing a lay declaratory 
of the right of Great Britain to legislate for America in 
taxation, as in every other case. But by whatever a4vi?4 
such a measure was carried, it argued little wisdom, the 
repeal and the declaratory act being inconsistent with each 
other. The ministry were therefore considered as unfit to 
guide the helm of a great empire, >iid wer$ obliged tq 
give way to a new arrangement* formed under the aus* 
pices of Mr. Pitt, then eari of Chatham. • This change 
created a considerable deal of political commotion ; ;and 
the public papers and. pamphlets of that day -turned their 
satire against the n^wly-.create0 earl o^, Chatham: jkfey 
charged him with weakening and dividing an interest whiph 
the public wished tp be supported ; and lending his great 
name apd authority to persons who were supposed to be of 
a party .which had been long held to be obnoxious to th# 
whig interest. of the couutry. Though these charges wer§ 
afterwards fully refuted by the subsequent conduct of the 
ipobl^.earl*; the late ministry were entitled to their share of 
praise, not only for being very active in promoting the 
general interests of, the state by several popular acts and 
ceftolptjpns, . but by their uncommon disinterestedness ; ps 
tty§y fjhpwecj, upon quitting their, pUqes, that they retired 
without a place, pension, or reversion,, secured .{o the?** 
9&)pe$ ,or jt^ieifp. ffiqfldp. ..[This was p. stroke ;whicb th$pri~ 
v#te fortune ;of Mr. JEfcurke jpould .tfj.. bear; but he had the 
honour,. of being a mernber of a. virtuous administration* ( 
he frad the' opportunity of opening his great political ta-< 
le^s^to thejpuWic^ and, above all, of shewing to ft aum* 
ber, <>f ijJustriQus frieuds (and in particular the marquis of 
Rqelfingbiitf)) his many private virtues and amiable qualities, 
joined to,a reach of oiind scarcely equalled by any of his 

cd##i»ppr&rief, 

Jn July 1,766, >lr* Burke, ,fin<%g himself disengaged 
frc^nppiitiqalbt^in^^, visited Ireland after an absence of 
WWJ^; jwd here h^;r(?newed ma,ny of those pleasing 
fri^ndsJ^psand connec$ip$3 which engaged the attention of 
his, younger days, $\w*ff^ WHtawfL still mpfe pleasing, by 
A© prospsqt^f.a rising-fortune* afcd. a capacity of doiug 
g<*o4 ft* those we tare-, and qsteen>, : lie returned to Eng? 
la*dU9tfW& theph&e q£ the year; and, finding a strong 
$ppj&ai*ion lori&ag against the duke of Grafton, who w^s 
ft^j^ng. t^e spirit au4rfetfce of thope resolutions passed 



334 BURKE. 

under the late administration, he threw himself into the 
foremost ranks, and there soon shewed what a formidable* 
adversary he was likely to be. The opinion which Mr. : 
Burke had of the Grafton administration is thus humorously 
described by himself. After paying many merited eulo-' 
giums on the character of lord Chatham, he claims the 
freedom of history to speak of the administration h& 
fbrmed, and thus proceeds :— ~" He made an administration 
so chequered and speckled; he put together a piece of 
joining so crossly indented and whimsically dove-tailed ; a' 
cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified 
Mosaic; such a tessellated pavement without cement; herd 
a bit of black stone; and there a bit of white; patriots 
and courtiers ; king's friends and republicans; whigs antt : 
tones ; treacherous friends and open enemies ;— that it was' 
indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch, 
and unsure to stand upon. The colleagues/ whom he had 
assorted at the same boards, stared at e^ch other, and 
wtere obliged to ask, * Sir, your name ? — Sir, you have the 
advantage of me — Mr. Such-a~one — Sir, I beg a thousand 
pardons/ I venture to say, it did so happen that person* 
hkd a single office divided between tbeta who hfcd never 
spoken to each other in their lives*, until they found them- ' 
selves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads Und 
points, in the sametruckle-b^d." ' 

r An ' administration, of which he had this opinion, wa* 
hot likely to proceed uncensured ; particularly* when his ; 
favourite repealing act " began to be in as bad ail odbur ' 
in the house its the stamp act had the session before. 91 
Other revenue acts following this, called out the force and ' 
variety of his talents; and the house began to perceive, 
that to whatever side this young statesman threw in his 
weight, it must add consideration and respect to his party.'' 
The session of 1768 opened with a perturbed prospect. '- 
The distresses occasioned by the high price of provisions/ 
the restraining afct relative to the East India company, thief 
nullum tempus bill, and other matters, afforded great room 
for discussion, in which Mr. Burke took a part which not 
only shewed the powers of his eloquence, but the great 
resources of his information. He was soon considered as 
the head o£ the Rockingham party in the house of ci>m» ' 
nions ; and his great assiduity in preparing business for 
discussion, joined to his powers- for speaking and writing; 
fully qualified him for this character. It is true, Aert 



BURKE. 335 

were other persons of great name on the same side ; such 
as the late right honourable W. Dowdeswell — the gravity of 
whose deportment, whose practical knowledge of business, 
and great integrity of character, made him always well 
heard and respected ; Mr. Dunning (late lord Ashburton)* 
whose legal knowledge and powers of elocution will be long 
remembered ; and colonel Barre, whose political observa- 
tion, and pointed replies, were always formidable to ad- 
ministration. But, notwithstanding the acknowleged me- 
rit of these gentlemen and others, Burke stood foremost 
for uniting the powers of fancy with the details of politi- 
cal information. In 'his speeches there was something 
fyr every mind to be gratified, which we have often seen 
occasionally exemplified even by those who disliked hit 
general politics. 

. The parliament being dissolved in 1768, Mr. Burke wa* 
reelected for Wendover. The opposition to the duke of. 
Grafton's administration consisted of two parties, that of 
the marquis of Rockingham, and that of Mr. Grenville, but 
thege two parties had nothing in common except their dis- 
like -of the ministry. This appeared very strikingly in a 
pamphlet written by Mr. Grenville, entitled " The present 
state -of the Nation," which, was answered by Burke, in 
" Observations on the present state of the Nation." One 
of the first subjects which occupied the attention of the 
new parliament was the expulsion of Wilkes for various 
libels, and the question, whether, after being so expelled, 
he was eligible to sit in the same parliament. Burke, on 
this occasion, endeavoured to prove that nothing but an 
act of the legislature can disqualify any person from sitting 
in parliament who is legally chosen, by a majority of elec- 
tors, to fill a vacant seat. It is well known that his friend. 
Dr. Johnson maintained a contrary doctrine in his " False 
Alarm;" but in this as well as other occasions during the 
American war, difference of opinion did not prevent a cor* 
dial intercourse between two men whose conversation dur- 
ing their whole lives was the admiration and ornament of 
every literary society. The question itself can hardly be 
said to, have ever received a complete decision. All that 
followed was the expulsion of Wilkes during the present 
parliament, and the rescinding of that decision 'in a future 
pa^riiaoient, without argument or inquiry, in order to gra- 
tify those constituents who soon after rejected Wilkes with 
unanimous contempt 



336 BURKE. 

The proceedings on this question gave rise to the cele- 
brated letters signed Junius, which appeared in the Pub- 
lic Advertiser, and had been preceded by many other 
anti-ministerial letters by the same writer, under other 
signatures. They were at that time, and have often since 
been attributed to Mr, Burke, and we confess we once, 
and indeed for many years, were strongly of this opinion, 
but after the recent publication of these celebrated Let- ' 
ters, with Junius' s private correspondence with Mr. Henry 
Woodfall, the printer of the Public , Advertiser, and with 
Mr, Wilkes, it is as impossible to attribute them to Burke, 
as. it is at present to discover any other gentleman to whom 
they may, from any reasonable grounds, be ascribed. St 
may be added too, that in a confidential conversation witb 
Dr. Johnson, he spontaneously denied them, which, as the 
doctor very properly remarks, is more decisive proof than 
if he had denied them on being a&ked the question. 

Besides Burke's speeches on the Middlesex election, he 
drew up a petition to the king from the freeholders of 
Buckinghamshire, where he had now purchased his house 
and lands at Beaconsfield*, complaining of the conduct of 
the house of commons, in the matter of the expulsion, and 
praying for a dissolution of parliament. This petition was 
more temperate and decorous than some others addressed 
to the throne on that subject. About the same time he 
published " Thoughts on the public Discontents," a pam- 
phlet from which they who wish to establish a "consistent 
whole" in Mr. Burke's conduct, derive some of their proofs. 
In this he proposed to place the government in the hands 
of an open aristocracy of talents, virtue, property, and 
rank, combined together on avowed principles, and sup-* 
ported by the approbation and confidence of the people ; 
and the aristocracy which he thought fittest for this great 
trust, was a combination of those whig families which had 
most powerfully supported the revolution and consequent 

* Mr. Burke's character has been his passion, no administration would 
frequently attacked on this purchase, have refused 'to remunerate his services 
The money m} said to have been either by the highest official emolument* ; and 
lent, or given him by the marquis of it ought not to be forgotten that when 
Rockingham j but other accounts say he deserted his friends in 1791, be 
that by the death of bis father and could not have the moat distant pro- 
brother, he inherited the sum of 20,000/. spect of the reward bis majesty wa* 
Throughout life, Mr. Burke was never pleased afterwards to bestow for his 
an ^economist, and the pension which services in illustrating the genius and 
he received in bis latter days was not tendency of the JP ranch revolution. ,. 
unseasonable. Had mere avarice been 



BURKE! 3S7 

establishments. He expressed also, in strong terms, his 
disapprobation of any change in the constitution and du- 
ration of parliament ; and declared himself as averse from 
an administration which should have no other support than 
popular favour, as from one brought forward merely by the 
influence of the court. In all Mr. Burke's publications 
there is a fascination of style and manner, which carries 
the reader with him to a certain distance; but to this 
scheme there were so many obvious objections that it made 
few converts, and courtiers and whigs equally opposed it, 
thinking it perhaps too comprehensive for the selfishness 
of party. 

In .1770, the duke of Grafton, unable to resist the oppo- 
sition within and without doors, resigned, and was suc- 
ceeded by lord North, whose measures Mr. Burke uni- 
formly opposed, particularly on the great questions agi- 
tated, and measures adopted with regard to America. So 
determined was he in his opposition to that minister, as to 
ridicule the proposition for a repeal of the obnoxious laws 
of the preceding administration, retaining only the duty on 
tea, as a mark of the authority of parliament over the colo- 
nies ; although this, if wrong, could not be more so than a 
similar measure which he supported, and, as already no- 
ticed, some say he advised, during the marquis of Rocking- 
ham's administration. The most brilliant of his speeches 
were made in the course of this disastrous war, during 
which, although the attempt has been made, we are totally 
at a loss to reconcile his principles with what he adopted ori 
a subsequent occasion, nor are we of opinion that the ques- 
tion can be decided by selecting detached passages from 
his speeches (the most important of which he published) ; 
but from a consideration, not only of the general tendency 
of the whole towards the welfare of the state, and the sen- 
timents of the natiou, but on the actual effects produced. 
And it must not be omitted that his opposition to govern- 
ment continued after all Europe had leagued against Great 
Britain, a conduct consistent enough with the character of 

a partisan, but which has little in it of true independent 
patriotism*. * • • < ' * 

* It it, we apprehend, Undeniable though the reign of Louis XVI, wai 

that Mr. Burke justified and praised comparatively a mild one, it will not 

Ataeriea -fi*r venturing on ail the hor* be easily answered, "Was it consistent 

rors of a revolution, rather than sub- in him, who applauded America for 

mit to the imposition of a trivial itn- dissolving its government/ venturing 

post. It is therefore asked, and, al- into blood, and hazarding ail the nor- 

Vol. VII, Z 



338 BURKS. 

Much of Burke's ardour in the comr*$ of thjs long p<Ai- 
tical warfare has been thus accounted for by his old fri#nd 
Gerard Hamilton : " Whatever opinion Burke, from any 
motive, supports, so ductile is his imagination, th$t he 
soon conceives it to be right." We apprehend also, tfaftfc 
Burke was more accustomed to philosophize on certain 
questions than is usually supposed, and that by revolving 
the question in every possible light, his mind was often as 
full of arguments on one side as on the other, neither of 
which he could on all occasions conceal ; and h$nce it u 
that men of quite opposite opinions have been equally de- 
sirous to quote his authority ; and that there are in hj# 
works passages that may be triumphantly brought fc^wturd 
by almost any party. Burke's judgment, had he given -& 
full play, would have rendered him an oracle, to whom aU 
parties would have been glad to appeal ;, but his political 
attachments were unfortunately strong while they lasted* 
and not unmixed with ambition, which frequently brought 
the independence of his character into suspicion. N© opir 
nion was ever more just than that of his friend QolcUmtflfc 
that Burke " gave up to party" what "was meant for mm? 

kind." ■; - 3 

In 1772, he took a trip to France, and while he remained 
in that country his literary and political eminence mad* 
him courted by all the anti-monarchical and in fide} pbiktr 
sophers of the time. That he saw in the religious, seep* 
ticism and political theories of Voltaire, Helvetius, Rou*r 
seau, and D'Alembert, even at that period, the probabjs 
overthrow of religion and government, is not surprising* 
for these consequences were foreseen, about the san*e time* 
by a man of ptuch less discernment, ^nd of no religion* thff 
late Horace Walpole, lord Orford, Burke, however, wre 
90 impressed with the subject, that on his return he could 
not avoid introducing his sentiments in the house of oomr 
mons, and poinding out the conspiracy pf a£hei*fl* to the 
watchful jealousy of government. He professed he mm 
w>t over-fond of calling in the aid of the setter, ant): to 
suppress dQctpnes ?md opinigm ;. hut if qvec it w^re to.jto 
raised, it should be against those enemies of*thefc kiwi 

fprs of anarchy* in support of its claim potism which violated all the u rights 

Co perhaps one of the moat doubtful of of man," and pertfcrfegl tfce ends of 

the *•« rights of man," the right of self, society ?" tyontb. £#*, wl« ?XYty 

j^ayation-; was it consistent in him to pJ. S. p. 57, 
reprobate Prance for shaking off a dee* 



9 V ft .£ £ 339 

whd would take from us the noblest prerogative of our na- 
ture, that of being a religious animal. About tbe same 
time he supported a motion for the relief of dissenters, and 
in the course of his speech called the toleration which they 
enjoyed by connivance " a temporary relaxation of 
alavery," a sort of liberty " not calculated for the meridian 
of England." 

la 1774, a dissolution of parliament took place, and Mr* 
$urke was returnedjone of the members for Malton ; when, 
just as he was fitting down to dinner with his constituents 
after the election, an express arrived from Bristol (consist- 
ing of a deputation of some merchants), informing hiip, 
that a considerable body of the citizens of Bristol, wishing, 
a,t that critical season, to be represented by some gentle- 
man of tried abilities and known commercial knowledge, 
had put him up in nomination as one of their candidates; 
and that they had set off express to apprise him of that 
event. Mr. Burke, after acknowledging this high honour, 
a$d thanking the gentlemen for their zeal and assiduity in 
his favour, returned into the room where his Malton con- 
stituents were, about sitting down to dinner, and told them 
the nature of the express he had just received, and re- 
quested their advice how to act He observed, " That as 
they had done him the honour of thinking him worthy to 
be their member, he would, if it was their wish, endeavour 
to support that' station with gratitude and integrity; but 
if they thought the general cause on which they were all 
embarked could be better assisted by his representing the 
city of Bristol, he was equally at their order.'* They im- 
giediateiy decided for Bristol ; when, after taking a short 
yepast with them, he threw himself into a post-chaise, and 
without ever taking rest on the road, arrived in that city 
en Thursday the 13th of October, being the sixth day of 
the poll. 

• His speech to the electors was as liberal as their invita- 
tion. He did hot, like other candidates, on a spur of 
mistaken gratitude, or the artifice of popular conciliation, 
pledge himself to be the mere vehicle of their instructions; 
lie frankly told them his opinion of the trust they had re- 
posed in him ; and what rendered this conduct still more 
<?re*litable to his feelings was, that his colleague (Mr. Cru- 
gfcr) had just before expressed himself in favour of tbe 
Coercive authority of bis constituents 1 instructions. Mr. 
Burke's sentiments on this occasion are well worth trans~ 

z 2 



340 BURKE. 

cribing, as, in our opinion, they place that point, "How 
far representatives are bound by the instruction* of their 
constituents," out of the reach of all future litigation. 
" Certainly, gentlemen," says he, " it ought to be the 
happiness and glory of a representative to live in the 
strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most 
unreserved communication with his constituents. Their 
wishes ought to have great weight with him ; their opinion, 
high respect ; their business, unremitted attention ; it is 
his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, hi* satisfac- 
tions, to theirs ; and above all, ever and in all cases, to 
prefer their interest to his own : but his unbiassed opinion, 
bis mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he 
ought not to sacrifice. to you, to any man, or to any set of 
men. Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from 
different and hostile interests, which interests each must 
maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents 
and advocates : but parliament is a deliberative assembly 
of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole ; where 
not local purposes, not local prejudices, ought to guide, 
but the general good resulting from the general reason ei 
the whole : — you choose a member indeed ; but when yon 
have chosen him, he is not a member of Bristol, but he is 
a member of parliament. If the local constituent should 
have an interest, or should form an hasty opinion, evidently 
^opposite to the real good of the rest of the community, 
the member for that place ought to be as far as any other 
from any endeavour to give it effect." 

With these open and manly sentiments, Mr. Burke en- 
tered the house of commons, and we know of no instance 
in which he did not preserve the tenor of them ; but in 
1780, when he stood candidate for Bristol again, it was 
found that he had given offence to his constituents, by 
maintaining that he should be independent in his conduct, 
by supporting the trade of Ireland, and by voting on sir 
George Saville's bill in favour of the Roman catholics; and 
although he endeavoured to vindicate himself with his usual 
eloquence, he lost his election, and took his seat m the 
new parliament for Malton. 

- The Spring of 1782 opened a new scene of great poli- 
tical importance. The American war had continued seven* 
years, and having been unsuccessful, not-only the people, 
but very nearly a majority of the parliament, became tired 
of it* . The minister was now attacked with great force, and 



BURKE. 34! ' 

the several motions which the opposition introduced, rela- 
tive to the extinction of the war, were lost only by a very 
small minority.' Finding the prospect of success brighten- 
ing, the opposition determined to put the subject at issue. 
Accordingly on the 8th of March,, lord John Cavendish 
moved certain resolutions, recapitulating the failures, thd 
misconduct, and the expences of the war, the debate on 
which lasted till two o'clock in the morning, when the 
house divided on the order of the day, which had been 
moved by the secretary at war, and which was carried only 
by a majority often. This defection on the side of admi- 
nistration gave heart to the minority, and they rallied with 
redoubled force and spirits on the 15th of March, when a 
motion of sir John Rous, " That the house could have no 
further confidence in the ministers who had the direction 
of public affairs,'* was negatived only by a majority of 
nine. The minority followed their fortune, and on the 
20th of the same month (the house being uncommonly 
crowded) the earl of Surrey (now duke of Norfolk) rose t6 
make his promised motion, when lord North spoke to ordery 
by saying, " he meant no disrespect to the noble earl ; but 
as notice had been given that the object of the intend- 
ed motion was the removal of bis majestj 7, s ministers, he . 
meant to have acquainted the house, that such a motion 
was become unnecessary, as he could assure the house, on 
authority, — that the present administration was no more ! 
and that his majesty had come to a full determination of 
changing his ministers; and for the purpose of giving the 
necessary time for new arrangements, he moved an ad- 
journment," which was instantly adopted. During this 
adjournment a new administration was formed under the 
auspices of the marquis of Rockingham, on whose public 
principles and private virtues the nation seemed to repose, 
after the violent struggle by which it had been agitated, 
with the securest and most implicit confidence. The ar- 
rangements were as follow : The marquis of Rockingham 
first lord of the treasury, the earl of Shelburne and Mr. 
Fox joint secretaries of state, lord Camden president of the 
council, duke of Grafton privy seal, lord John Cavendish 
chancellor of the exchequer, and Mr. Burke (who was at 
the same time m^de a privy counsellor) paymaster-general 
of the forces. 

Upon the meeting of parliament after the recess, the 
new ministry, which stood pledged to the country for many 



342 BUSK £• 

reforms, began to put them into execution. They first 
began with the affairs of Ireland ; and as the chief ground 
of complaint of the sister kingdom was the restraining 
power of the 6th of George the First, a bill was brought ia 
to repeal this act, coupled with a resolution of the house, 
" That it was essentially necessary to the mutual happiness 
of the two countries that a firm and solid connection should 
be forthwith established by the consent of both, and that 
his majesty should be requested to give the proper direc- 
tions for promoting the same." These passed without op- 
position, and his majesty at the same time appointed his 
grace the duke of Portland lord lieutenant of that king- 
dom. They next brought in bills for disqualifying revenue 
officers for voting in the election for members of parlia- 
ment ; and on the 15th of April, Mr. Burke brought for- 
ward his great plan of reform in the civil list expenditure, 
by which the annual saving (and which would be yearly 
increasing) would amount to 72,368/. It was objected by 
some members that this bill was not so extensive as it wad 
originally framed ; but Mr. Burke entered into the grounds^ 
of those omissions which had been made either from a 
compliance with the opinions df others, or from ia fuller 
consideration of the particular cases; at the same time he 
pledged himself, that he should at all times be ready to 
obey their call, whenever it appeared to be the general 
dense of the house and of the people to prosecute a more 
. complete system of reform. This bill was followed by. 
another for the regulation of his own office ; but the late- 
ness of the season did not afford time for the completion of 
all plans of regulation and retrenchment, which were in 
the contemplation of the new ministry, and indeed all their 
plans were deranged by the death of the marquis of Rock- 
ingham July J, 1782. Oh this event it was discovered 
that there was not that perfect union of principles among 
the leaders of the majority, to which the country had 
looked up; for, lord Shelburrie (afterwards marquis of 
Lansdowne) being appointed first lord of the treasury, a. 
statesman who had incessantly and powerfully co-operated 
vith the party in opposition to the tate war, except in the 
article of avowing the independence of America, this gave 
umbrage to the Rockingham division of the cabinet, who 
were of opinion that " by this change the measures of the 
former administration Would be broken in upon.'* Mr, 
Fox, therefore, lord John Cavendish, Mr. jJurke, and others, 



BURKE. 343 

# 

resigned their respective offices, and Mr. Pitt, then a very 
young man, succeeded lord George Cavendish as chan- 
cellor of the exchequer, lord Sidney succeeded Mr. Fox 
as secretary of state, and colonel Barre Mr. Burke as pay- 
master of the forces, lord Sherburne retaining his office as 
firfet minister. 

By this change Mr, Burke fell once more into the ranks 
of opposition, and continued in that situation until after 
the general peace of 1783, when Mr. Fox, joining his par- 
liamentary interest with that of lord North, gained a ma- 
jority in the house of commons, which after some ineffec- 
tual struggles on the part of Mr. Pitt, terminated in what 
was called the coalition administration, composed of the 
duke of Portland first lord of the treasury, lord John Ca-^ 
vendish chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Burke, as before, 
paymaster of the forces, and Mr. Fox and lord North joint 
secretaries of state. As this union of political interest was 
the iriost unpopular measure adopted in the present reign, 
and that which it has, above all others, been found most 
difficult to reconcile with purity and consistency of prin-. 
ciple, it may be necessary to state what has been offered 
tin apology, at least as far as Mr. Burke is concerned. It 
is well known to those in the least conversant in the poli- 
tics which immediately preceded this period, how uniformly 
lord North was upbraided for his conduct throughout the 
whole course of the American war : every thing that could 
attach to a bad ministry was laid to his charge, except 
perhaps the solitary exception of corruption in his own 
person, which was not much, while he was continually 
accused of being the mover of a mass of corruption in 
bthers ; and as Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke were the two lead- 
ing champions of the bouse of commons, in their several 
apeeches will be found invectives of such a nature, as to 
men judging of others in the ordinary habits of life, per* 
haps would be thought insurmountable barriers to their 
Coalition. But we are told, that forming an administration 
upon a broad bottom of political interest is quite a different 
thing from contracting a private friendship ; in the former 
hiany things are to be conceded, in regard to times and 
circumstances, and the opinions of others ; in the latter 
the question of right and wrong lies in a narrower compass, 
and is more readily judged of by the parties and their 
friends. Mr. Burke, therefore, may say, " that in his 
several attacks on lord North, he considered him as a prin- 



344 BURKE. 

cipal promoter and encourager of the American war, a 
war which he held destructive of the interests and consti- 
tutional rights of this country* As a minister^ therefore, 
he reprobated his conduct ; but the American contest be- 
ing over, and other measures about to be pursued, which, 
in his opinion, might heal the bruises of this war, he 
coalesced with him as a man, who (benefiting himself by 
bis former mistakes) might still render important services* 
to his country." 

Such a defence as this may very well be admitted in 
favour of Mr. Burke and others ; but Mr. Fox stood 
pledged upon different ground. He not only inveighed 
against the minister in the grossest terms of abuse, but 
against the man; whom, he said, "he would not trust 
himself in a room with, and from the moment that he ever 
acted with him, he would rest satisfied to be termed the 
most infamous of men." After such a particular declara- 
tion as this, emphatically and deliberately announced in a 
full house of commons, scarce nine months had elapsed 
when Mr. Fox cordially united with lord North, and. 
brought a suspicion on his character, with regard to con^ 
sisteucy, which all the exertions of his future life were not 
able to remove. In the mean time, however, a new ad* 
ministration bade fair for permanence. It was strong in 
talents, in rank, and in the weight of landed interest. It 
seemed nearly such a combination of great families as Mr. 
Burke had wished in his " Thoughts on the Causes of the 
present Discontents," but it wanted what was necessary to 
complete his plan, " the approbation and confidence of 
the people." Suspicion attached to all their measures, 
and seemed, in the opinion of the people, to be con- 
firmed when they introduced the famous East India bill. 
This is not the place for discussing the merits of this im- 
portant bill; it may suffice, as matter of fact, to state that 
it was considered as trenching too much on the prerogative, 
as creating a mass of ministerial influence which would 
be irresistible ; and that the vast powers which it gave the 
house of commons might render the administration too 
strong for the crown. Had these objections been dbnfined 
to the ex-ministers and their friends, the coalesced nii«* 
lusters might have repelled them, at least by force of 
numbers, but it was peculiarly unfortunate for Mr. Burke, 
Mr. Fox, and the whig part of administration, that they 
were opposed without doors by the voice of .the people, 



BURKE. 345 

aud in the writings of all those authors who -had the credit 
of being constitutional authorities. 'The East India- bill, 
accordingly, although carried in the house of commons, 
was lost in that of the lords, and a new administration was 
arranged in December 1783, at the bead <>f which was 
Mr. Pitt 

The majority of the house of commons, however, still 
continuing attached to the dismissed ministers, public bu- 
siness was interrupted, and continued in an embarrassed 
state until his majesty determined to appeal to the people 
by a dissolution of parliament in May 1784. The issue 
of this was, tlrat many of the most distinguished adhe- 
rents to the coalition were rejected by their constitu- 
ents, and Mr. Pitt, in the new parliament, acquired a ma- 
jority quite decisive as to the common routine of bu- 
siness, but certainly for many years not comparable in 
talents to the opposition. Mr. Burke, again belonging to 
this class, exerted the utmost of those powers which so 
justly entitled him to the character he maintained in the 
world. To detail the progress of that high character 
through all the political business he went through would 
\>e incompatible with the nature and limits of this work ; 
his talents will be best shewn in a general and minute re- 
view of his public life, as exemplified in his speeches, his 
political and other publications, and then he wiU be found 
one of the greatest ornaments of the age he lived in. 

Referring, therefore, at large to these documents, the 
next great political object of Mr. Burke's attention was in 
the impeachment of Warren Hastings, esq. governor ge- 
neral of Bengal. Whatever merit or demerit there was 
in this procedure, it originated with him; he pledged 
himself to undertake it long before Mr. Hastings's return 
from India, and was as good as his word on his arrival ; 
parliament, however, sanctioned his motions for an im- 
peachment, and from that time to its final determinatioa 
it was their own act and deed. In the prosecution of this 
tedious and expensive trial, the variety and extent of Mr. 
. Burke's powers, perhaps, never came out with greater 
lustre ; he has been charged by some with shewing too 
much irritability of temper on this occasion, and by others 
of private and interested pique; but though we acknow- 
ledge there appear to be .grounds for the first charge 
(which is too often the concomitant of great and ardent 
qiinds in the eager and impassioned pursuits of their ob<* 



U6 BURKE. 

ject) we have every reason to acquit him of the other. It. 
was, on the contrary, his political interest to forego the 
impeachment, and his friends, we believe, strongly ad- 
vised him to that measure, but we have every reason to. 
think he felt it his duty to act otherwise; and though the 
subsequent decision of the house of lords has shewn he was 
in an error, we must suppose it an error of his understand- 
ing, not of his heart Such at least is the language of 
some of his biographers on this subject ; but, although he 
may be ekculpated of malice or avarice in this affair, we 
cannot help being of opinion, that his character, the cha- 
racter of his heart, as well as his head, must suffer by the 
recollection of his many and violent exaggerations without 
proof, and particularly his harsh and coarse notice of Mr. 
Hastings, and his own personal ostentation. On one oc- 
casion, when in t!he moment of Mr. Hastings's hesitation 
about the ceremony of kneeling at the bar, which pro- 
ceeded from accident, he commanded him to kneel,* withi 
a ferocity in his countenance which no painting could ex- 
press, we question if there was a human being in that vast 
assembly who would have exchanged feelings with him. 

The next important measure in which Mr. Burke stood 
forward with ah unusual degree of prominence, was the 
settlement of a regency during his majesty's illness in 
1788-9.' On his* conduct at this time, his biographers 
who wish to prove lihn uniformly consistent in political 
principle, seem inclined to cast a Veil ; but, as in that conduct 
be betrayed more characteristic features of the man as 
well as the politician than dt any other period of his life ? we 
know not bow to get rid of some notice of it in a narrative, 
however short, whifch professes td be impartial. In fact, 
his repeated interference in the debates to which the re-, 
gency gave rise, were far more formidable to his own 
friends than to the ministers. Either unconscious that 
ebnstitutional principles and popular opinion were against 
the part his friends took, of despising both in a case in 
which he thought himself right, prudence so completely 
deserted him, th&t, not content with the urgency of legal 
and speculative argument, he burst iforth in expressions, 
respecting* his majesty, so indecent, irreverent, and cruel, 
as to create more general dislike to his character than had 
ever before been entertained ; and when we consider that 
this violence of temper and passion were exercised ori the 
illtistrious personage to whom in a very few years he waft 



BURKE. 347 

gratefully to acknowledge his obligations for the indepen- 
dence and comfort of his latter days, we cannot be sur- 
prised that those who intend an uniform and unqualified 
panegyric on his public life, wish to suppress his conduct 
during this memorable period. 

The next and last sera of his history is, perhaps, the 
most important of all, as it is that concerning which the 
opinions of the world are still divided. We allude to his 
interference, for such it may be called, with the conduct 
and progress of the French revolution. Many of his friends 
in parliament, as well as numbers of wise and good men 
out of it, augured from the meeting of the states-general 
of France, great benefit to that nation, of which the go- 
vernment was considered as despotic and oppressive ; and 
some were sanguine enough to predict a new and happy 
order of things to all the nations connected with France, 
wheri its government should become more free. These senti- 
ments, we can well remember, were not only general, but 
perhaps universal, although they might not always pro- 
ceed from the same sources. There were some who loved 
liberty, and would hail its dawn in any country. There 
Were others who hated the French government as the per- 
petual enemy of Great Britain. Mr, Burke saw. nothing 
in the proceedings of the French which was favourable 
either to liberty or peace. He was well acquainted with 
the genius of the French people, and with the principles 
of those philosophers, as they called themselves, by whoni 
a total revolution in church and state had long been pro- 
jected ; and from the commencement of their career in 
the constituent assembly, when they established, as the 
foundation of all legal government, the metaphysical doc- 
trine of the " rights of man," he predicted that torrent of 
anarchy and infidelity which they have since attempted to - 
pour over all Europe. Mr. Fox, and some of the other 
leading men in opposition, considered this as a vain fear, 
and a coolness took place between them and Mr. Burke,, 
although they continued for some time to act together in 
parliament. In the mean time he published his oelebrated 
*' Reflections on the French Revolution/* the iustantaneous 
effect of which was to reduce the nation, hitherto unani- 
mous or indifferent on the subject, to two distinct parties, , 
the one admiring the glorious prospepts arising from the 
French revolution, the other dreading its consequences 
to' this nation in particular, and to the world at large/ 



348 B U ft K E. 

Many able writers of the former class took up their pen* 
on this occasion, in what were called " answers*' to Mr. 
Burke, and some of them were certainly written with great 
ability. The controversy was long and obstinate, and can- 
not be said to have terminated until the commencement of 
the war in 1793, when the changes of government and 
practice in France rendered most of the points discussed 
with Mr. Burke no longer of immediate importance. 
France, as he had predicted, was plunged into barbarous 
and atrocious anarchy, and the friends of her projected 
liberty, dearly as they clung to the idea, were obliged to 
confess themselves disappointed in every hope, while Mr* 
Burke's predictions were erroneous in one only, namely, 
that France was now blotted out of the map of Europe. 

In the mean time, an open rupture took place between 
Mr. Burke and his oldest friends in opposition. In 1790 
he had so far expressed his dislike of experiments on the 
established laws and constitution, as to oppose the repeal 
of the test-act, and a motion for the reform of parliament. 
With regafd to the latter, we know not that he ever was 
friendly, but it is certain that he once maintained the pro- 
priety of relieving the dissenters from certain disabilities. 
He was now, however, as he declares in his " Reflections,** 
endeavouring to " preserve consistency by varying his 
means to secure the unity of his end ; and when the equi- 
poise of the vessel in which he sails may be in danger of 
overloading it upon one side, is desirous of carrying the 
small weight of his reasons to that which may preserve the 
equipoise." He had identified the whole body of dis- 
senters with Drs. Priestley and Price, and from their wri- 
tings, particularly those of Priestley, saw nothing but a 
co-operation with the French in revolutionary measures. 
Such were his sentiments, when, in 1791, a bill was pro- 
posed for the formation of a constitution in Canada. In 
discussing it Mr. Burke entered on the general principles 
6f legislation, considered the doctrines of the rights of 
man, proceeded to its offspring, the constitution of France, 
and expressed his conviction that there was a design formed 
in this country against its constitution. 

After some members of his own party had called Mr. 
Burke to order, Mr. Fox, after declaring his conviction 
that the British Gonstitution, though defective in theory* 
was in practice excellently adapted to this country, re- 
peated bis praises of the French revolution } he thought 



BURKE. 349 

it, on the whole, one of the most glorious events in the 
history of mankind ; and proceeded to exgress his dissent 
from Mr. Burke's opinions on the subject/ as inconsistent 
with just views of the inherent rights of mankind. These, 
besides, were, he said, inconsistent with Mr. Burke's for- 
mer principles. Mr. Burke, in reply, said : " Mr. FoX 
has treated me with harshness and malignity ; after having 
harassed with his light troops in the skirmishes of order, 
he brought the heavy artillery of his own great abilities to 
bear on me." He maintained that the French constitution 
and general system were replete with anarchy, impiety, 
vice, and misery ; that the discussion of a new polity for a 
province that had been under the French, and was now 
under the English government, was a proper opportunity 
of comparing the French and British constitutions. He 
denied the charge of inconsistency ; his opinions on go- 
vernment, he insisted, had been the same during all his 
political life. He said, Mr. Fox and he had often differed, 
and that there had been no loss of friendship between 
them ; but there is something in the " cursed French revo- 
lution" which envenoms every thing. On this Mr. Fox 
whispered : " There is no loss of friendship between us." 
Mr. Burke, with great warmth, answered : €€ There is ! I 
know the price of my conduct; our friendship is at an 
end." Mr. Fox was very greatly agitated by this renun- 
ciation of friendship, and made many concessions ; but in 
the course of his speech still maintained that Mr. Burke 
had formerly held very different principles. It would be 
difficult, says' one of his biographers, to determine with 
certainty, whether constitutional irritability or public prin- 
ciple was the chief cause of Mr. Burke's sacrifice of that 
friendship which he had so long cherished, and of which 
the talents and qualities of its object rendered, him so 
worthy. It would perhaps be as difficult to prove that 
such a sacrifice was necessary, and we fear that his recon- 
ciliation with lord North and his quarrel with Mr. Fox 
must, even by the most favourable of his panegyrists, be. 
placed among the inconsistencies of this otherwise truly 
eminent character. From this time, Messrs. Burke and 
Fox remained at complete variance, nor have we ever 
beard that any personal interview 'took place afterwards 
hetween them. 

Mr, Burke b£ing now associated wit^Mi*. 1 Pitt, although 
neither soliciting, nor invited into any public station, con* 



350 BURKE. 

tinued to write from time to time, memorials and remark* 
on the state of France, and the alliance of the great powers 
of Europe that was formed against the new order of things 
in that distracted country. Some of these were published 
after his death, but as all of them are included in his col- 
lected works, it is unnecessary now to specify their dates 
and titles. Having resolved to quit the bustle of public 
life as soon as the trial of Mr. Hastings should be con- 
cluded, he vacated bis seat when that gentleman was ac- 
quitted, and retired to his villa at Beaconsfield, where on 
Aug. 2, 1794, he met with a heavy domestic loss in the 
death of his only son. In the beginning of the same year 
be had lost his brother Richard, whom he tenderly loved ; 
but; though this reiterated stroke of death deeply affected 
bim, it never relaxed the vigour of bis mind, nor lessened 
the interest which he took in the public welfare. In this 
retreat he was disturbed by a very unprovoked attack 
upon his character by some distinguished speakers in the 
{louse of peers. Soon after the death of bis son, his ma* 
jesty bestowed a pension of 1200/. for his own life and thai 
of his wife on the civil list, and two other pensions of 2500/1 
a year for three lives, payable out of the four and a half 
per cent. These gifts were now represented as a reward 
^or having changed his principles, and deserted his friends, 
although they were bestowed after he had left parliament. 
This charge he repelled in a letter addressed to earl Fitz- 
william, written in terms of eloquent and keen sarcasm. 
. When the appearance of amelioration in the principles 
and government of France induced his majesty to make 
overtures of peace to the French Directory, Mr* Burke 
resumed his pen, and gave his opinions against the safety 
of such a negociation in a series of letters entitled : 
" Thoughts on the prospect of a Regicide Peace." This 
was his last work, and in point of style and reasoning not 
inferior to any he bad produced oft the subject of the 
French character and government. 

From the beginning of July 1797, his health rapidly de- 
clined; but his understanding exerted itself with undi- 
minished force and uncontracted range. On the 7 th of 
that, mop th, when the French revolution was mentioned, 
^e spojse with pleasure $f the conscious rectitude of his 
own intentions in what he had done and written respecting 
£; ^treated those about him to helieve, that if any un- 
guarde4 ejrp/ssaip* 1 of his oa the subject had $ffm*d$d*Ujr 



BURKE. 451 

pf hjs former friends, no offence was by him, intended ; and 
he declared his unfeigned forgiveness of all who bad on 
account of his writings, or for any other cause, endea- 
voured to do him an injury. On the day following, whilst 
one of his friends, assisted by his servant,, was carrying 
him. into another room, he faintly uttered, " God bless 
yoq," fell back, and instantly expired in the sixty-eighth 
year of his age. He was interred on the 15th, in the 
church of BeaconsBeld, close to his son and brother* 

Edmund Burke in his person was about five feet, ten 
inches high, erect, and well formed ; with a countenance 
rather soft and open ; and except by an occasional bend 
of bis brow, caused by his being near-sighted, indicated 
none of those great traits of mind by hip countenance which 
he was otherwise well known to possess. The best print 
pf him is from a half-length by sir Joshua Reynolds, painted 
when Mr. Burke was in the meridian of life. 

Of his talents and acquirements it would be difficult to 
speak, did we not trust to his long and justly-established 
fame to fill up the deficiencies of our description. The 
richness of his mind illustrated every subject he touched 
upon. In conversing with him be attracted by his novelty? 
variety, and research ; in parting from him, we involuntarily 
exclaimed " What an extraordinary man !" As an orator, 
though not so grand and commanding in his manner as 
lord Chatham, whose form of countenance and penetrating 
eye gave additional force to bis natural and acquired ta- 
lents, yet he had excellencies which always gave him sin-* 
gular pre-eminence in the senate. He was not (though it 
was evident he drew from these great resources) like Ci- 
cero, or Depaosthenes, or any one else ; the happy power 
of diversifying his matter, and placing it in various rela- 
tions, was all his own ; and here he was generally truly 
sublime and beautiful. He had not, perhaps, always the 
9Xt of concluding in the right place, partly owing to the 
vividness of his fancy, and the redundancy of his matter ; 
and partly owing to that irritability of temper which he 
himself apologizes for to his friends in his last notice of 
them.; but those speeches which he gave the public do not 
partake of this fault, which. shew that in bis closet his judg* 
raent returned to its v^ual standard. 

As a writer he is still higher; and judging of him from 
his earliest to his latest productions, he must be consi- 
dered as one of those prodigies which *re tforoeumeft givea. 



352 BURKE. 

9 

to the world to be admired, but cannot be imitated; he 
possessed all kinds of styles, and gave them to the bead 
and heart in a most exquisite manner : pathos, taste, ar- 
gument, experience, sublimity, were all the ready colours 
of bis palette, and from his pencil they derived their 
brightest dyes. He was one of the few whose writings 
broke the fascinating links of party, and compelled all to 
admire the brilliancy of his pen. He was a firm professor 
of the Christian religion, and exercised its principles in 
its duties ; wisely considering, " That whatever disunites 
man from God, disunites man from man." He looked 
within himself for the regulation of his conduct, which was 
exemplary in all the relations of life \ be was warm in his 
affections, simple in his manners, plain in his table, ar- 
rangements, &c. &c. and so little affected with the follies 
and dissipations of what is called " the higher classes," 
that he was totally ignorant of them ; so that this great 
man, with all his talents, would be mere lumber in a mo- 
dern drawing-room ; not but that he excelled in all the re- 
finements as well as strength of conversation, and could at 
times badinage with great skill and natural ease ; but what 
are these to a people where cards and dice constitute their 
business; and fashionable phrases, and fashionable vices, 
their conversation ? 

His entire works have been published by his executors, 
Drs. King and Laurence, in 5 vols. 4to, and 10 vols. 8vo, 
and will ever form a stupendous monument of his great 
and unrivalled talents. For reasons, however, which we 
have already hinted, they will require to be read by the 
political student with a considerable portion of that judg- 
ment which, in the author, was frequently paralyzed by 
the rapidity of his ideas, and tbe bewitching seductions of 
his imagination. And wh^n the details of his public and 
private life shall be given frpm more authentic sources^ 
and sanctioned by his correspondence, which is said to be 
extensive, no reasonable doubt can be entertained that ha 
will deserve to be considered as the most illustrious polU 
cal character of the eighteenth century. l 

BURKITT (William), a celebrated commentator on 
the New Testament, the son of the rev. Miles Burkitt^ 
who was ejected for nonconformity, was born at Hitchamj 
« • * 

* Principally from Bisset's Life of Burke.— Dr. Gleig's Supplement to the* 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, and a well-wriiteu Life in the European Magazine for 
1797.— Gwrt. Mag. 1197, *c 



I"* 



BURKITT. S5S 

in Northamptonshire, July 25, 1650. He Was sent first to 
a school at Stow Market, and from thence to another at 
Cambridge. After his recovery from the small pox, which 
he caught there, he was admitted of Pembroke-half, at 
the age of no more than fourteen years ; and upon his re- 
moval from the university, when he had taken his degree, 
he became a chaplain in a private gentleman's family, 
where he continued some years. He entered young upon 
the ministry, being ordained by bishop Reynolds ; and the 
first employment which he had was at Milden, in Suffolk, 
where he continued twenty-one years a constant preacher 
(in a plain, .practical, and affectionate manner), first as 
curate, and afterwards as rector of that church. In 1692 
be was promoted to the vicarage of Dedham, in Essex, 
where he continued to the time of his death, which hap- 
pened in the latter end of October, 1703. He was a pious 
and charitable man. He made great collections for the 
French Protestants in the years 1687, &c. and by his great 
care, pains, and charges, procured a worthy minister to 
go and settle in Carolina. Among other charities, he be- 
queathed by his last will and testament the house wherein 
be lived, with the lands thereunto belonging, to be an 
habitation for the lecturer that should be chosen from time 
to time to preach the lecture at Dedham. He wrote some 
books, and among the rest a Commentary upon the New 
Testament, in the same plain, practical, and affectionate 
manner in which he preached. This has often been re- 
printed, in folio, and- lately with some alterations and im- 
provements, by the rev. Dr. Glasse. Mr. Burkitt's other 
works are small pious tracts for the use of his parish- 
ioners. 1 

BURLAMAQUI (John James), an eminent civilian, 
descended from one of those* noble families of Lucca, 
which, upon their embracing the Protestant religion, were 
obliged, about two centuries and a half since, to take re- 
fuge in Genfeva, was born at Geneva in 1694, where he 
became honorary professor of jurisprudence in 1720. 
After travelling into France, Holland, and England, he 
commenced the exercise of his functions, and rendered 
his school famous and flourishing. One of his pupils was 
prince Frederic of Hesse-Cassel, who, in 1734, took him 
fo his residence, and detained him there for some time* 

* Life by Parkhurst, 170^*™. 
ViM.. VII. A A 



«* BUKLAMAQ'UL 

Upon his return to Geneva, he surrendered his professor- 
•hip; and in 1740 entered into the grand council, and, 
as a member of this illustrious body, he continued to serve 
his fellow-citizens till his death, in 1750. As a writer, 
he was distinguished less by his originality than by his 
clear and accurate method of detailing and illustrating the 
principles of others $ among whom, are Grotius, Puffen- 
dorf, and Barbeyrac. His works are : '* Principles of 
Natural Law," Geneva, 1747, 4to, often reprinted, trans- 
lated into various languages, and long used as a text-book 
in the university of Cambridge ; and " Political Law,'* 
Geneva, 1751, 4to, a posthumous work, compiled from 
the notes of his pupils, which was translated into English 
by Dr. Nugent, 1752, «vo. His " Principles of Natural 
Law'* were re-published in the original by Professor de 
Felice, Yverdun, 1766, 2 vols, with additions and im- . 
provements. Another posthumous work of our author, 
was his " Elemens du Droit Naturel," being bis text-book 
on the Law of Nature, and admirable for perspicuity and 
happy arrangement Burlamaqui.was much esteemed it* 
private life, and respected as a lover of the fine arts, and 
a patron of artists. He had a valuable collection of pic- 
tures and prints \ spid a medal of him was executed by 
Dassier, in a style of superior excellency, r 

BURLEIGH (Lord). See CECIL. * 

BURMAN (Francis), the first upon record of a very* 
learned family, and professor of divinity at Utrecht, was 
the son of Peter Barman, a Protestant minister at Fran- 
kendal, and was born at Leyden in 1632, where he pur- 
sued his studies. At the ^Lge of twenty-three he was 
invited by the Dutch congregation at Hanau, in Germany, 
r to be their pastor, and thence he was recalled to Leyden, 

' and chosen regent of the* college in which be bad been 

educated Before he had been here a year, his high re- 
putation occasioned his removal to Utrecht, where he was 
appointed professor of divinity, and one of the preachers. 
Here he acquired additional fame by his learning, and the? 
flourishing state to which he advanced the university. He 
was reckoned an excellent philosopher, an eminent scholar 
in the learned languages, and a good preacher. He died 
Nov. 10, 1679. His principal works are Commentaries on 
some of the books of the Old Testament, in Dutch, be* 

1 Diet Hut—Itots's Cy€lopadift* 



BURMA N. 3$$ 

tides which he wrote in Latin: 1. "An Abridgment of 
Divinity," Utrecht, 1671, 2 vols. 4to, often reprinted. 
2. " De Moralitate Sabbati," 1665, which occasioned a 
controversy with Essenius. 3. " Narratio de controversiis 
nuperius in academia Ultrajectina mods, &c." Utrecht, 
1677, 4to. 4. " Exercitationes Academical," Rotterdam, 
168$, 2 vols. 4to. 5. " Tractatus de Passione Christi," 
1695, 4to. 6. His " Academical discourses," published 
by Grsevius, with some account of the author, Utrecht, 
1700, 4to, and the same year they were translated and 
printed in Dutch. 1 

BURMAN (Francis), one of the sons of the preceding, 
was born at Utrecht, in 1671, studied polite literature 
lender Gr^vius, and afterwards went to the university of 
Leyden, where he entered upon his philosophical, mathe- 
matical, and divinity course* After he had finished his 
academical studies, he was chosen pastor of the church of 
Coudom, in Frieseland, and three years after, in 1698, 
was invited to that of the Brille. In 1702 he accompanied, 
as minister, a deputation of his countrymen to England. 
On. his return he preached at Enchuysen, and at Amster- 
dam, where he remained ten years* In 1715 he was ap- 
pointed divinity-professor at Utrecht, where he died in 
It 19, leaving by his wife, Elizabeth Thierrens, four sons, 
the eldest of whom, John, became in 1738 professor of 
botany a£ Amsterdam; the second, Francis, was minister 
at Nimeguen; the third, Abraham, a merchant at Am- 
sterdam ; and Peter, the fourth, professor of humanity at 
Franeker. His works are: 1. " Burmannorum pietas, 
gratissimae beati parentis memorise communi nomine ex- 
hibita," with some letters of Burman and Limborg, Utrecht, 
1J01, 8vo. 2. " A defence of his father," in Dutch, 
1704, against the charge of Spinosism, brought against 
him by Limborg. His other works are chj^fly orations on 
points of theology, sacred poetry, &c* 

BURMAN (Peter), the eminent philologist, was bro- 
ther to the preceding, and born at Utrecht, June 26, 1668. 
His father died when he was in bis eleventh year, by which 
event be was thrown entirely on the care of his mother, 
by whose diligence, piety, and prudence, his education 
was so regulated, that he had scarcely any reason, but 
filial tenderness, to regret the loss of his father. About 

i MtrerL— Barman's Trajectum Eruditunu J Ibid. 

A A 2 



356 BURMAN. 

this time be was sent to the public school at Utrecht, to 
be instructed in the learned languages, and after passing 
through the classics with much reputation, was admitted 
into the university in his thirteenth year. Here he was 
committed to the care of the learned Gracvius, whose re- 
gard for his father (of which we took some notice in his 
life) induced him to superintend his studies with more 
than common attention, which was soon confirmed and in- 
creased by his discoveries- of the genius of his pupil, and 
his observation of his diligence. He was soon enabled to 
determine that Burman was remarkably adapted to classical 
studies, and to predict the great advances that he would 
make, by industriously pursuing the direction of his ge- 
nius. Animated by the encouragement of a tutor so 
celebrated, he continued the vigour of his application, 
and for several years not only attended the lectures of 

* Graevius, but made use of every other opportunity of im- 
provement with such diligence, as might justly be expected 
to produce an uncommon proficiency. 

Having thus attained a sufficient degree of classical 
knowledge to qualify him for inquiries into other sciences, 

^ he applied himself to the study of the law, and published 
a dissertation, " De Vicesima Haereditatum," which he 
publicly defended, under the professor Van Muyden, with 
sifch learning and eloquence, as procured him great ap- 
plause. He then went to Leyden, where he studied for 
.a year, under M. de Voider, a man of great celebrity, 
and attended at the same time Ryckius's explanations of 
Tacitus, and James GronoviuVs lectures on the Greek 
writers, and has often been heard to acknowledge, at an 
advanced age, the assistance which he reeeived from them. 
After passing a year at Leyden, he returned to Utrecht, 
and once more applied himself to philological studies, by 
the assistance of Grsevius; and here, in March 1688, he 
was advanced to the degree of doctor of laws, on which 
occasion he published a learned dissertation " De Trans- 
actionjbus," and defended it with his usual eloquence, 
learning, and success. He then travelled into Switzer- 
land and Germany, where he gained an increase both of 
fame and learning. 

On his return he engaged in the practice of the law, 
and was attaining high reputation in the courts of justice, 
when he was summoned in 1691, by the magistrates of 
Utrecht, to undertake the charge of collector of the tenths, 



BURMAN. 35T 

an office in that place of great honour, and which he ac- 
cepted therefore as a proof of their confidence and esteem. 
While thus engaged, he married Eve Clotterboke, a young 
l^dy of a good family, by whom he had ten children, two. 
of whom only survived him. But neither public business, - 
nor domestic cares, detained Burman from the prosecution 
of his literary inquiries ; by which he so much endeared 
himself to- Graevius, that he was recommended by him to 
the regard of the university of Utrecht, and accordingly, in 
1696, was chosen professor of eloquence and history, to 
which was added, after some time, the professorship of 
the Greek language^ and afterwards that of politics ; so 
various did they conceive his abilities, and so extensive 
bis knowledge. Having now more frequent opportunities 
of displaying his learning, he rose, in a short time, to a 
high reputation^ of which the great number of his auditors 
was a sufficient proof, and which the proficiency of his 
pupils shewed not to be accidental, or undeserved. 

In 1714, during the university vacation of six weeks, he 
visited Paris, for the purposes of literary research. In 
this visit he contracted an acquaintance, among other 
learned men, with the celebrated Montfaucon ; with whom- 
he conversed, at his first interview, with no other character 
than that of a traveller; but their discourse turning upon 
ancient learning, the stranger soon gave such proofs of his 
attainments, that Montfaucon declared him a very uncom- 
mon traveller, and confessed his curiosity to know his 
name ; which he no sooner heard than he rose from his 
seat, and, embracing him with the utmost ardour, ex* 
pressed his satisfaction at having seen the man whose pro- 
ductions of various kinds be had so often praised ; and as a 
real proof of his regard, offered not only to procure him 
an immediate admission to all the libraries of Paris, but to 
those in remoter provinces, which are not generally open 
to strangers, and undertook to ease the expences of his 
journey, by prcjcuring him entertainment in all the mo- 
nasteries of his order. This favour, however, Burman was 
hindered from accepting, by the necessity of returning to 
his professorship at Utrecht. 

He had already extended to distant parts his reputation 
for knowledge of ancient history, by a treatise " De Vec- 
tigalibus populi Romani," on the revenues of the Romans; 
and for his skill in Greek learning, and in ancient coins, 
by a tract called " Jupiter Fulgurator," and after his 



358 BURMAN. 

return from Paris, he published " Pbaedrus," first with the 
notes of various commentators, and afterwards with hid 
own. He printed also many poems, and made many ora- 
tions upon different subjects, and procured an impression 
of the epistles of Gudius and Sanavius. While he was 
thus employed, the professorships of history, eloquence, 
and the Greek language, became vacant at Leyden, by th£ 
death of Perizonius, which Burman's reputation incited 
the curators of the university to offer him upori very liberal 
terms, which, after some demur, he accepted, and on en- 
tering on his office, in 1715, pronounced an oration upon 
the duty and office of a professor of polite literature, " De 
publici humanioris discipline professoris proprio officio et 
munere." He was twice rector of the university, and dis- 
charged that important office with ability. Indeed, by bis 
conduct in every station he gained so much esteem, that 
when the professorship of history of the United Provinces 
became vacant, it was conferred on him, as an addition to ' 
his honours and revenues whidi he might justly claim ; 
and afterwards, as a proof of the continuance of their re- 
gard, they made him chief librarian, an office which was 
the more acceptable to him, as it united his business with 
his pleasure, and gave him an opportunity at the same 
time of superintending the library, and carrying 6n his 
studies. 

- Such was his course of life, till, in his old age, leaving 
off his practice of taking exercise, he began to be afflicted 
with the scurvy, which tormenting disease he bore, though 
not without some degree of impatience, yet without de- 
spondency, and applied himself in the intermission of his 
pains, to seek for comfort in the duties of religion. While 
he lay in this state of misery, he received an account of 
the promotion of two of his grandsons, and a catalogue of 
the king^ of France*s library, presented to him by the com- 
mand of the king himself, and expressed some satisfaction 
on all these occasions ; but soon diverted his thoughts to 
the more important consideration of his eternal state, int6 
which he passed March 31> 1741, in the seventy-third 
year of bis age. 

He was a man of moderate stature, of great strength 
and activity, which he preserved by temperate diet, with- 
out medical exactness, and by allotting proportions of his 
time to relaxation and amusement, not suffering his studies 
to exhaust his strength, but relieving them by frequent 



B U R M A N. 35* 

intermissions. In his hours of relaxation he was gay, and 
sometimes gave way so far to his temper, naturally sati- 
rical, that he drew upon himself the ill-will of those who 
had been unfortunately the subjects of his mirth ; but 
enemies so provoked be thought it beneath him to regard 
or to pacify; for he was fiery, but not malignant, dis- 
dained dissimulation, and in his gay or serious hours, pre- 
served a settled detestation of falsehood. So that he was 
an open and undisguised friend or enemy, entirely unac- 
quainted with the artifices of flatterers, but so judicious in 
the choice of friends, and so constant in his affection to 
them, that those with whom he had contracted familiarity 
in his youth> had, for the greatest part, his confidence in 
his old age. 

His abilities, which would probably have enabled him 
to have excelled in any kind of learning, were chiefly em- 
ployed, as his station required, on polite literature, in which 
he arrived at very uncommon knowledge, but his superiority, 
however, appears rather from judicious compilations than 
original productions. His style is lively and masculine, but 
not without harshness and constraint, nor, perhaps, always 
polished to that purity which some writers have attained. 
He was at least instrumental to the instruction of mankind, 
by the publication of many valuable performances, which 
lay neglected by the greater part of the learned world ; 
and, if reputation he estimated by usefulness, he may 
claim a higher degree in the ranks of learning than some 
others of happier elocution, or more vigorous imagination. 
The malice or suspicion of those who either did not know, 
or did not love him, had gjiven rise to some doubts about 
his religion, which he took an opportunity of removing on 
his death-bed, by a voluntary declaration of his faith, his 
hope of everlasting salvation from the revealed promises 
of God, and his confidence in the merits of our Redeemer, 
of the sincerity of which declaration his whole behaviour 
in his long illness was an incontestable proof; and he 
concluded his life, which had been illustrious for many 
virtues, by exhibiting an example of true piety. His 
literary contests are now forgotten, and although we may 
agree with Le Clerc, that Burman might have been bet- 
ter employed than in illustrating such authors as Petronius 
Arbiter, yet we are at a loss to find an apology for Le 
Clerc's personal abuse and affected contempt for Burman. 
Burman has, by the gerferal vQJice of modern critics, been 



)» 

™ 



S60 BURMAN, 

allowed the merit of giving to the public some of the best 
edition* of the Latin classics, among which we may enu-*- 
mecate his 1. " Phaedrus," Leyden, 1727, 4to. 2. "Qutn- 
tilian," ibid. 17^0, 2 vols. 4to. 3. "Valerius Flaccus, 
Traj. ad Rhenum (Utrecht), 1702, 12mo. 4. " Ovid, 
Amst 1727, 4 vols. 4to. To this admirable edition, ac- 
cording to the Bipont editors, he had composed a long 
and learned preface, which did not appear until fifteen 
years after his death, when it was published under the 
title " P. Burmanni Preefatio ad Ovidii editionem majorem 
excusam Amst. 1727," 175C, 4to. 5. " Poetoe Latini 
Minores," 1731, 2 vols. 4to. 6. " Velleius Paterculus," 
Leyden, 1719, and 1744, 2 vols. 8vo. 7. " Virgil," 
Amst. 1746, 4 vols. 4to. 8. "Suetonius," ibid. 1736, 2 
vols. 4to. 9. " Lucan," Leyden, 1740, 4to. 10. " Bu~ 
chanani Opera," Leyden, 1725, 2 vols. 4to. To these 
may be .added: " Sylloges Epistolarum a viris illustribus 
Bcriptarum," Leyden, 1727, 5 vols. 4to, a work of great 
curiosity and utility in literary history ; and his " Ora- 
tiones, antea sparsim editae, et ineditis auctce. Accedit 
carminum Appendix," Hague, 1759, 4to. To these ora- 
tions the editor annexed his funeral oration, pronounced 
by the learned Mr. Oesterdyke, professor of medicine in 
Leyden, which contains those particulars of his life, which 
are given above, and were first translated by Dn Johnson, 
and published in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1742. l 
> BURMAN (Gaspard) is said to have been the son of 
the preceding, but little is recorded of him, unless that he 
was a magistrate of Utrecht, and died in 1755. He wrote 
in Latin a " Life of Pope Adrian VI." Utrecht 1727, and 
in 1733 a quarto volume, to which we have been consi- 
derably indebted, entitled " Trajectum eruditum," or, 
an account of the learned men of Utrecht. * 

BURMAN (Peter), called the second, or the younger, 
was son tP Francis Burman and nephew to the first Francis 
Burwan, whose life we have given above* and was cele- 
brated for philosophical knowledge. He was born at Am* 
pterdapa in 1713, and educated principally by his uncle. 
He rose to the offices of professor of history and eloquence 
at Franeker; and in 1742 removed to Amsterdam, where 

1 Gent. Mag. ubi supra, and Johnson's Works. — Moreri. — Dibdin'g Classics. 
.— Saxii Onomast.*-But we may Jiere remark that there is some differences in the 
relationship of the following Burtnans in our authorities, which, we fear, wt 
Jjave not been able to reconcile, * Diet, Hist.«— Saxii Onomast, 



BURMAN, 361 

he died Jane 24, 1778, of an apoplexy. A year before, he 
had resigned his professorship, and had retired to a country 
house between Leyden and the Hague. He published 
editions, 1. of " Aristophanes," properly Bergler's edition, 
but under the care of Burman, Leyden, 1760, 2 vols. 4to, 
2. " Claudian," Amst. 1760, 4to. 3. " Anthologta," of 
the Latin poets, Amst. 1759, 2 vols. 4to. 4. " Propertius/* 
Utrecht, 1780, 4to, a posthumous work superintended by 
Santenius, by far the best edition of Propertius ever 
published. 5. " Poematum Libri Quatuor," Leyden, 
1774, 4to. 1 

BURMAN (Johf), father of the preceding, once a pu- 
pil of Boerhaave, and professor of botany at Amsterdam, 
employed much labour and expence in editing various bo- 
tanical works, particularly those giving accounts of plants 
procured from the Indies. In 1736 he published an edition 
of Weinman's Herbal, to which he added several plates 
with African plants. His next publication, in which he 
had the assistance of Linnaeus, then a young man, was the 
" Thesaurus Zeylanicus, exbibens Plautas in Insula Zey- 
lana nascentes, Iconibus illustratus," 4 to, 1737, taken from 
various travellers, with new descriptions and plates. The 
following year he was appointed professor to the botanical 
garden at Amsterdam, and soon after published " Raria- 
runj Africanarum Plantarum Decades Decern," 4to, prin- 
cipally from Witsen and Vanderstell, to which, however, 
he made several additions. He translated Rumphius's great 
work into Latin, which he enriched with valuable notes, 
and published under the title of " Everhardi Rumphii 
Herbarium Amboiuense, continens plantas in ea, et ad- 
jacentibus Insulis repertas." His last labour was procuring 
engravings to be executed from the drawings of American 
plants left by Plumier, to which he &dded descriptions, 
with the modern and former names. He died at a very 
advanced age in 1779. It must not be forgot that he was 
one of the earliest and kindest patrons of Linnaeus, and 
when the latter, who had been introduced to him by Boer- 
haave, pleaded his poverty as an excuse why he could not 
remain at Amsterdam, Dr. Burman boarded and lodged 
him at bis house for a considerable time, free of all ex- 
pence. He was not always so liberal, or even courteous 

* Diet. Hist— Saxii Onomast— Harles de Vitis Philologoram, Tol. I. a siofU* 
Uf accouq£ of B imp an, and written in his life-time. 



$62 BURN. 

to strangers of eminence, according to the account of Dr. ♦ 

Smith in his Tour, p. 29. l ' 

BURN (Richard), an eminent -law-writer, was born at 
Winton in Westmoreland some time about the beginning 
of the last century; he was educated at Queen's college, 
Oxford, which university conferred on him March 22, 1762, 
the honorary degree of LL. D. He died at Orton, of 
which place he had been vicar forty-nine years, Novem.-. 
bet 20, 1785. He was one of his majesty's justices of the 
peace for the counties of Westmorland and Cumberland* 
and was made by bishop Lyttelton chancellor of the diocese 
of Carlisle. In 1755, he first published bis " Justice of 
Peace and Parish Officer, upon a plan entirely new, and 
comprehending all the law to the present time,** 2 vols, 
ftvo, reprinted in the same form in 1756, and in the same 
year in folio, in 1757, 3 vols. Svo, &c. The fourteenth 
edition was enlarged to 4 vols. 8vo, in which form it has 
passed, with gradual amendments and improvements, 
through various editions ; the last of which is the twenty- 
first. In 1760 he published his " Ecclesiastical Law,'* 2 
vols. 4to, which afterwards was reprinted in 4 vols. 8vo. . 
Both works were strongly recommended by Judge Black- 
stone, and both are extraordinary examples of unrivalled 
popularity and permanence. In 1764 he wrote "A His- 
tory of the Poor Laws," 8vo, and in 1776 " Observations 
on the Bill proposed in parliament 'for erecting County 
Workhouses." He likewise published " The History and 
Antiquity of the two counties of Westmoreland and Cum- 
berland," in conjunction with Joseph Nicojson, esq. ne- 
phew to the bishop of Carlisle, 1771, 2 vols. 4to, in which 
work he has given the above brief notices of himself. l 

BURNABY (Andrew), D. D, archdeacon of Leicester 
and vicar of Greenwich, was born in 1732, at Asfordby in 
Leicestershire, of which place his father, grandfather, 
and great grandfather, were in succession patrons and 
rectors, as his youngest brother is at this time. He was 
elected into Westminster college in 1748, but removed 
from that school, and was entered of Queen's college, 
Cambridge, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1754, 
and his master's in 1757. After having travelled through 
the middle settlements in North America in 1759 and 1760. 

1 Rees's Cyclopedia — Stoever's Life of Linnaeus, p. 79 et seqq. 
* Hist, of Westmorland ubi sup* a.— -Bridgtaan's Legal Bibliography. 



B tJ R N A B Y. * S63 

Br. Burnaby was appointed chaplain to the British factory 
at Leghorn, were he resided five .years ; in occasional ex- 
cursions visited Corsica, and almost every part of Italy ; 
and during the last of those years (sir John Dick haying 
obtained his majesty's leave to return to England for his 
private concerns) had the honour to do the consular busi- 
ness^ by the appointment of government, under the deno- 
mination of proconsul. In 1769 he was presented to the 
vicarage of Greenwich; and in 1786 the archdeaconry of 
Leicester Wfes conferred on him by bishop Thuriow, with- 
out the least expectation or solicitation on his part ; both 
which preferments he enjoyed till his death, March 9, 1812, 
His widow, the heiress of John Edwyn, esq. of Bagrave in 
Leicestershire, died on the 16th pf the same month, aged 
Seventy-six. Dr. Burnaby was distinguished by the purest 
integrity and benevolence of heart, the most unaffected 
urbanity of manners, and a lively and ardent zeal for his 
profession. Jlis principal works were, 1. u Travels through 
the middle settlements in North America in the years 1759 
and 1760, with observations upon the state of the colonies,'* 
1775, 4to, of which a third edition, considerably enlarged, 
was published in 1798-9. 2. Various Sermons, preached 
on Fast, Thanksgiving, and other public occasions, and 
Some charges, reprinted together in one vol. 8vo, 1805. 
JSost of them were highly valued both for matter and man- 
ner. He printed also, for the use of particular friends, 
K A Journal of a Tour to Corsica in the year 1766, with a 
series of original letters from general Paoli to the author, 
referring to the principal events which have taken place in 
that island from the year 1769 to 1802, with explanatory 
faotes," 1804. l 

BURNET (Gilbert), the celebrated bishop of Salisbury, 
vfas born at Edinburgh, Sept. 18, 1643. His father was 
the younger brother of an ancient family in the county of 
Aberdeen, and was bred to the civil law, which he studied 
for seven years in France. His excessive modesty so far 
depressed his abilities, that he never made a shining figure 
at the bar, though he was universally esteemed to be a 
hian of judgment and knowledge in his profession. He 
Was remarkably generous in his practice, never taking a 
fee from the poor, nor from a clergyman, when he sued 
in the right of his church ; and bestowing great part of 

» Gent. Ma$. 1812. 



364 BURNET. 

bis profits in acts of charity and friendship. In 1637, 
when the troubles in Scotland were breaking out, he was 
so disgusted at the conduct of the governing bishops there, 
whom he censured with great freedom, and was, at the 
same time, so remarkable for his strict and exemplary life, 
that he was generally called a Puritan. But when he saw, 
that instead of reforming abuses in the episcopal order, the 
order itself was struck at, he adhered to it with, great zeal 
and constancy, as he did to the rights of the crown, not 
once complying with that party which afterwards prevailed 
in both nations. For though he agreed with Barclay and 
Grotius (with the latter of whom he had been intimately 
acquainted) as to their notions of resistance where the laws 
are broken through by a limited sovereign, yet he did not 
think that was then the' case in Scotland. He married the 
sister of the famous sir Archibald Johnstoun, called lord 
Warristoun ; who, 4 ur * n g the c ^ 1 ^ wars, was at the head 
of the presbyterian party, and so zealously attached to 
that interest, that neither friendship nor alliance could 
dispose him to shew favour to those who refused the solemn 
league and covenant. Our author's father, persisting in 
this refusal, was obliged, at three several times, to quit 
the kingdom; and, when his-*return was afterwards con- 
nived at, as his principles would not permit him to renew 
the practice of the law, much less to accept the prefer- 
ments in it offered him by Oliver Cromwell, he retired to 
his own estate in the country, where he lived till the resto- 
ration, when he was made one of the lords of the session by 
the title of lord Cramond. His wife, our author's mother, 
was very eminent for her piety and virtue, and a warm 
zealot for the presbyterian discipline, in which way she 
had been very strictly educated. 

Our author received the first rudiments of his education 
from his father, under whose care he made so quick, a 
progress, that, at ten years of age, he perfectly under- 
stood the Latin tongue ; at which time he was sent to the 
college of Aberdeen, where he acquired the Greek, and 
went through the usual course of Aristotelian logic and 
philosophy, with uncommon applause. He was scarcely 
fourteen when he commenced master of arts, and then ap- 
plied" himself to the study of the civil law ; but, after a 
year's diligent application to that science, he changed his 
resolution, and turned his thoughts wholly to the study 
of divinity. At eighteen years of age, he was put upon 



B U R N E T. 36S 

* 

bis trial as a probationer or expectant preacher ; and, at 
the same time, was offered the presentation to a very good 
benefice, by his cousin-germah sir Alexander Burnet, but 
thinking himself too young for the cure of souls, he mo- 
destly declined that offer. His education, thus happily 
begun, was finished by the conversation and advice of the 
inost eminent Scotch divines. In 1663, about two years 
after his father's death, he came into England, where he 
first visited the two universities. At Cambridge he had 
an opportunity of conversing with Dr. Cud worth, Dr. 
Pearson, Dr. Burnet, author of the " Sacred Theory," 
and Dr. Henry More, one of whose sayings, in relation to 
rites and ceremonies, then made a great impression on 
him : " None of these," said he, " are bad enough to 
make men bad, and 1 am sure none of them are good 
enough to make men good." At Oxford our author was 
much caressed, on account of his knowledge of the council* 
and fathers, by Dr. Fell, and Dr. Pocock, that great mas- 
ter of Oriental learning. He was much improved there, 
in his mathematics and natural philosophy, by the instruc- 
tions of Dr. Wallis, who likewise gave him a letter of re- 
commendation to the learned and pious Mr. Boyle at Lon- 
* don. Upon his arrival there, he was introduced to all the 
most noted divines, as Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Patrick, 
Lloyd, Whitcbcot, and Wilkins ; and, among others of the 
laity, to sir Robert Murray. 

About six months after he returned to Scotland, where 
he declined accepting the living of Saltoun, offered him 
by sir Robert Fletcher of that place, resolving to travel for 
some time on the continent. In 1664, he went over into 
Holland ; where, after he had seen what was remarkable 
in the Seven Provinces, he resided for some time at Am- 
sterdam, and afterwards at Paris. At Amsterdam, by the 
help of a learned Rabbi, he increased his knowledge in 
the Hebrew language, and likewise became acquainted 
with the leading men of the different persuasions tolerated 
in that country : among each of whom, he used frequently 
. to declare, lie had met with men of such real piety and 
virtue, that he contracted a strong principle of universal* 
charity. At Paris he conversed with the two famous 
ministers of Charenton, Daill£ and Morus. His stay in 
France was the longer, on account of the great kindness 
' with which be was treated by the lord Holies, then am- 
bassador at the French court. Towards the end of the 



*66 BURNET. 

year he returned to Scotland, passing through London, 
where he was introduced, by the president sir Robert 
Murray, to be a member of the royal society. In 1665, 
he was ordained a priest by the bishop of Edinburgh, and 
presented by sir Robert Fletcher to the living of Saltoun, 
which had been kept vacant during his absence. He soon 
gained the affections of his whole parish, not excepting the 
presbyterians, though he was the only clergyman in Scot- 
land that made use of the prayers in the liturgy of th£ 
church of England. During the five years be remained at 
Saltoun, he preached twice every Sunday, and once on 
one of the week-days : he catechized three times a-week, 
sb as to examine every parishioner, old or young, three 
times in the compass of a year : he went round the parish 
from house to house, instructing, reproving, or comforting 
them, as occasion required -.the sick he visited twice a 
day : he administered the sacrament four times a year, and ' 
personally instructed all such as gave notice of their inten- 
tion to receive it. All that remained above his own neces-* 
sary subsistence (in which be was very frugal), he gave 
away in charity. A particular instance of his generosity 
is thus related : one of his parishioners had been in exe- : 
cution for debt, and applied to our author for some small 
relief; who inquired of him, how much would again set 
him up in his trade : the man named the sum, and be as 
readily called to his servant to pay it him : " Sir," said he, 
41 it is all we have in the house." M Well," said Mr. Bur- 
net, " pay it this poor man : you do not know the pleasure 
there is in making a man glad. 7 ' This may be a proper 
place to mention pur author's practice of preaching extern*- '• 
ipore, in which he attained an ease chiefly by allotting many 
hours of the day to meditation upon all sorts of subjects, 
and by accustoming himself, at those times, to speak his 
thoughts aloud, studying always to render his expressions 
correct. His biographer gives us here two remarkable ; 
instances of his preaching without book. In 1691, when 
the sees, vacant by the deprivation of the non-juring ' 
bishops, were filled up, bishop Williams was appointed to 
prfeach one of the consecration -sermons at Bow-church; 
but; being detained by some accident, the archbishop of 
Canterbury desired our author, then bishop of Sarum, to 
supply his place ; which he readily did; to the general satis** 
faction of all present. In 1705, he was appointed to preach 
the thanksgiving-sermon before the queen at St. Paul's; and 



BURNET. 361 

as it was thecmly discourse he had ever written before-handy 
it was the only time that he ever made a pause in preach- 
ing, which on that occasion lasted above a minute. The 
same year, he drew up a memorial of the abuses of the 
Scotch bishops, which exposed him to the resentments, of 
that order: upon which, resolving to confine himself to 
study, and the duties of his function, he practised such a 
retired and abstemious course, as greatly impaired hieu 
health. About 1668, the government of Scotland being in 
the hands of moderate men, of whom the principal was sir 
Robert Murray, be was frequently consulted by them ; and 
it was through his advice that some of the more moderate 
presbyterians were put into the vacant churches ; a step 
which he himself has since condemned as indiscreet In 
1669, he was made professor of divinity at Glasgow; in 
which, station he executed the following plan of study. 
On Mondays, he made each of the students, in their turn, 
explain a head of divinity in Latin, and propound such 
theses from it as he was to defend against the rest of the 
scholars ; and this exercise concluded with our professor's 
decision of the point in a Latin oration. On Tuesdays, he 
gave them a prelection in the same language, in which he 
proposed, in the course of eight years, to have gone 
through a complete system of divinity. On Wednesdays, 
he read them a, lecture, for above an hour, by way of a 
critical commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel ; which he 
finished before he quitted the chair. On Thursdays, the 
exercise was alternate; one Thursday, he expounded a 
Hebrew Psalm, comparing it with the Septuagint, the* 
Vulgar, and the English version ; and the next Thursday, 
he explained some portion of the ritual and constitution 
of the primitive church, making the apostolical canons his 
text, and- reducing every article of practice under the head 
of one or other of those canons. On Fridays, he made 
each of his scholars, in course, preach a short sermon upon 
some text he assigned ; and, when it was ended, he ob- 
served, upon any thing that was defective or amiss in the 
handling of the subject. This was the labour of the morn* 
ings: in the evenings, after prayer, he every day read 
some parcel of scripture, on which he made a short 
discourse ; and, when that was over, he examined into 
the progress of their several studies. "All this he performed, 
during the whole time the schools were open; and, in 
order to acquit himself with credit, he was obliged to study 



$68 



BURN E T. 



hard from four till ten in the morning ; the rest of the day 
being of necessity allotted, either to the care of his pupils, 
or to hearing the complaints of .the clergy, who, finding be 
had an interest with men of power, were not sparing in 
their applications to him. In this situation he continued 
four years and a half, exposed, through his principles of 
moderation, to the censure both of the episcopal and prop- 
by terian parties. The same year he published bis " Mo- 
dest and free Conference between a Conformist and a Non- 
conformist." About this time he was entrusted, by the 
duchess of Hamilton, with the perusal and arrangement 
of all the papers relating to her father's and unpiefs 
ministry; which induced hup to compile " Memoirs, jpf the 
Dukes of Hamilton," and occasioned his being invited %o 
London, to receive farther information, concerning the 
transactions of those times, by the earl of Lauderdale ; be- 
tween whom 'and the duke of Hamilton he brought aboiat 
a reconciliation. During his stay m London, he was of- 
fered a Scotch bishopric, which he refused. SopA, after 
his return to Glasgow,- he married the lady Margaret W| SeQ- 
nedy, daughter of the earl of Cassjlis*. In 1672, Jie pub- 
lished his " Vindication of the Authority, Constitution, and 
Laws, of the Church and State of Scotland," against the 
principles of Buchanan and others ; which was thought, at 
that juncture, such a public service, that he was again 
courted to accept of a bishopric, with a promise of the 
next vacant archbishQpric, but hp persisted in his refusal 
of that dignity. In 1673, he took another journey to 
'London ; where, at the express nomination of the king, 
after hearing him preach, he was sworn one of his majesty's 
chaplains in ordinary. He became likewise in high favour 
with his majesty and the duke of York f. At his return tp 



* This was a lady of distinguished 
piety and knowledge: her own senti- 
ments indeed inclined strongly towards 
the presbyterians, with whom she was 
fin high credit and esteem; yet she 
^was far from partaking the narrow zeal 
of some of their leaders. As there was 
some -disparity in their ages, that it 
might remain past dispute that this 
match was wholly owing to inclination, 
not to avarice or ambition, the day be- 
fore their marriage, our author deli- 
vered the lady a. deed, whereby he 
renounced all pretension to her for- 
tune, which was very considerable, 



and must otherwise have fallen into 
his bands, she herself having no in- 
tention to secure it. j 
f The avowed design of this journey 
was, in order to procure a licence for 
publishing his " Memoirs of the Dukes 
of Hamilton:" but it would .appear 
that he bad farther views ; for we art 
told, he went with a full resolution of 
withdrawing himself from affairs of 
state* He saw that popery wait 
though covertly, the prevailing interest 
at court, and that the Mcramefftfettesft 1 , 
whereby the duke of York, the lord Gift 
ford, tad other papists in emplcrrt 



-*..-■< •■ 



B U R N E T. 869 

Edinburgh, finding the Animosities between the dukes of 
Hamilton and Lauderdale revived, he retired to his station; 
at Glasgow ; but was obliged the next year to return to 
court, to justify himself against the accusations of the duke 
of Lauderdale, who had represented him as the cause apd 
instrument of all the opposition the measures of the court 
had met with in the Scotch parliament. Thus he lost the 
favour of the court; and, to avoid putting himself into the 
hands of his enemies, he resigned the professor's chair at 
Glasgow, and resolved to settle in London, being now 
about thirty years of age. Soon after, he was offered the 
living of St. Giles's Cripplegate, which be declined ac- 
cepting, because he heard that it was intended for Dr. 
Fowler, afterwards bishop of Gloucester. Irr 1675, out 
author, at the recommendation of lord Holies, and not- 
withstanding the interposition of the court against him, was 
appointed preacher at the Rolls chapel by sir Harbottle 
Grimstone, master of the Rolls. The same year he was 
examined before the house of commons in relation to the 
duke of Lauderdale, whose conduct the parliament wa* 
then inquiring into. He was soon after chosen lecturer of 
St Clement's, and became a very popular preacher. In 
1676, he published his " Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamil- 
ton ;" and the same year, "An account of a Conference 
between himself, Dr. Stillingfleet, and Coleman." About 
this time, the apprehensions of popery increasing daily, he 
undertook to write the " History of the Reformation of the 
Church of England." The rise and progress of this his 
greatest and most useful work, is an object of too great 
curiosity to require any apology on account of its length. 
His own account of it is as follows : " Some time, after I 
had printed the ' Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton/ 
which were favourably received, the reading of these got 
me the acquaintance and friendship of sir William Jones, 
then attorney-general. — My way of writing history pleased 
him ; and so be pressed me to undertake the History of 
England. But Sanders's book, that was then translated 
into French, and. cried up much in France, made all my 

went, had been excluded, was a mere duchess of Lauderdale: he pointed 

artifice of king Charles to obtain money out to them the errors of their manage- 

fyr carrying oa the war with Holland, ment in Scotland, and the ill effects 

He suspected that the designs of the it would have, both upon themselves 

€ourt were both corrupt and desperate, and the whole nation : but he fouud 

fie therefore used all the freedom he po disposition in them to rectify their 

decently could with the. duke and measures. 

Vou VII. B • 



S 



S7d B U R tf E T* 

friends press ftie to answer it, by writing the tllstbry iH 
- the Reformation. So now all niy thoughts were turned 
that way* I laid out for manuscripts, and searched into 
all offices. I got for some days into the Cotton LiWarfl 
But duke Lauderdale hearing of my design, and tijipre* 
hending it might succeed in my hands, got Dolben, bishop 
of Rochester, to divert sir John Cotton from suffering l tm 
to search into his library. He told him, I was a great 
enemy to the prerbgative, to which Cotton was devotfed^, 
even to slavery. So he said, I would certainly make fcW ifl 
use of all I had found. This wrought' so much on hiito* 
that I was no more admitted, till my first volume was'phb* 
lished. And then, when he saw how I had compt>sfed:9§ 
he gave me Tree access to it." 'The fitst volume bftliis 
won lay near a year after it was finished, for the pertteal 
and correction of; friends ; so that it was not published 'till 
the yefur 1679, when the affair of the popish plot was ift 
agitation. This book' procured our author an honou^riev^r 
before or since paid to any writer*, he had tbethantestff 
both houses of parliament, with a desire that he wotffi 
prosecute the undertaking, and domplete that valakbte 
Work. Accordingly, in less than two jrears after*; B6 
printed the second volume, which met with the k*megei 
neral approbation as the first: and such Was his rfeadfoesfc 
in composing, that he wrote the historical paWiYi th^ft 
compass of sfcx weeks, after all his material^ were laid *d 
order. The third volume, containing a supplement to the 
two former, was published in 1714. **The defects of 
Peter Heylyn's " History of the Reformation," as bishop 
Nicolson observes, " are abundantly supplied in oilfr 
author's more complete history. He gives a punctual a&i 
count of all the affairs of the reformation, from ite begin* 
ning in the reign of Henry VIII. to its final establishment 
under queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1559. And the whole it 
penned in a masculine style, such as becomes an h&tofi&f^ 
imd is the property of this author in all his writings. Tfil 
collection of records, which be gives at the end of-fe&eft 
volume, are good vouchers of the truth of what he deiivferi 
in the body of the history, and are much more perfect' than 
could reasonably be expected, after the pains taken, A 
queen Mary's days, to suppress every thing that carried 
the marks of the reformation upon it.'* Our author 1 * pe#£ 
formance met with a very favourable reception abroad, -arid 
was translated into most of -the European languages*; 3ttitt 



BURNETt SU 

• 

tven the keenest of bis enemies, Henry Wharton, allows it 
to h^ve " a reputation firmly and deservedly established," 
The most eminent of the French writers who have attacke4 
it, M. Varillas and M. Le Grand, have received satisfactory 
replies from the author himself. At home it was attacked 
fry Mr. S. : JLowth, who censured the account Dr. Burnet 
J^ad given of some of archbishop Cranmer's opinions, as^ 
verting that both our historian and Dr. Stillingfleet had im* 
po^ed upon the world in that particular, and had " un- 
tiaitbfully joined together" in their endeavours to lessen 
episcopal ordinatio^. Our author replied to Mr. Lowtb, 
in some " letters in answer" to his book. Th4 next assail* 
mit was Henry Wharton, who, under the name of An&hony 
Harmer, published " A specimen of some Errors and 
Defects in the History of the Reformation," 1693, 8vo, a 
perforipartce of no great candour ; to which, however, our 
historian vouchsafed a short answer, in a " Letter to the 
Bishop of Lichfield." t A third attack on this History was 
jgade by Dr. Qtekes in " Discourses on Dr. Burnet and 
jlfc, TiUptson;" in which the whole charge amounts to no 
loore than this, that, " in a matter of no great consequence, 
there was too little care had in copying or examining & 
letter writ in a very bad hand," and that there was some 
pgo&ibility that Dr- Burnet € f was mistaken in one of his 
£<Hijecttire& M Our author answered this piece, in a " Vin- 
dication" of his History* The .two first parts were trans- 
lated into French by ML de Rqsemond, and into Latin by 
Melchior Mittelhorzer. • There is likewise a Dutch trans- 
lation of it. Ifi 1 682, our author published " An abridg- 
ment of bis. History of the Reformation," in 8vo, in which 
he t$lls us, he bad wholly waved every thing that belonged 
19 the records, and the proof of what he relates, or to the 
porifufcation of the falsehoods that .run through the popish 
j^istoriajis ; all which is to be found in the History at large* 
Ap4 therefor in this abridgment, he says, every thing is 
$o be taken upon trust ; and those who desire a fuller satis* 
fagtidfrj fire referred to the volumes he had before pub- 
lished* 

x Although our author at this time had no parochial cure! 
fee did not refuse his attendance to any sick person who 
ifcstr.ed it, and was sent for, amongst others,, to one who 
had been engaged in a criminal amour with Wilnrtot, earl 
$£ Roetaatf r. The manner he treated her, during her 
iU&esSj jjaye that lord a great cariosity of being acquainted 

11 B 2 



$72 JBURNET. 

with him, and for a whole winter, in a conversation of at 
least one evening in a week, Burnet went over all those 
topics with him, upon which sceptics, and men of loose 
morals, are wont to attack the Christian, religion. The 
effect of these conferences, in convincing the earl's judg- 
ment, and leading him to a sincere repentance, became 
the subject of a well-known and interesting narrative which 
he published in 1680, entitled " An Account of the Life 
and Death of the Earl of Rochester." This work has 
lately been reprinted more than once, perhaps owing to 
the character I>r. Johnson gave of it in his Life of Roches- 
ter : he there pronounces it a book " which the critic 
ought to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its ar* 
guments, and the saint for its piety." , . , > 

. During the affair of the popish, plot, Dr, Burnet was 
tfteo consulted by king, Charles, upon the state of the 
nation) and, about fhe same time, refused the vacant 
bishopric of Chichester, which his majesty offered him, 
♦£ provided be would entirely, come into his interest," But, 
though his free access to that monarch did. not. procure him 
preferment, it gave him an opportunity of sending hit 
jpajesty a most remarkable letter*, in which/with great 
freedom, he reprehends, the, vices and errors both of his 
( private life and his government The unprejudiced part 
, he acted during the time the nation was inflamed vrtith the 
discovery pf the popish, plot ; his candid . ^endeavours to 
save the lives of Staley and the lord Stafford, both zealous 
papists i his temperate conduct in regard to the exclusion 

'* This letter may be seen' in the might look for. I pressed him upon 

■• Life of Burnet, prefixed to the edition that earnestly to change the whole 

: of " His own Time," by Dr. Flex- course of bis life. I carried th»* letter 

.man, who then had it in his possession, to Chi ranch's, on the 29th of January ; 

The following is the bishop's own ac- and teJd the' king in the letter,, that I 

count of it; " Mrs. Roberts,? when be hoped the refections on what had b«* 

(the King) bad kept for some time, sent fallen his father on t^e 30th of January, 

for me when she was dying : I saw her might more him to consider these 

often for some weeks, '.and, 'among things more carefully, l*ord Arraa 

. ©toft things, I desired her to write a . nappeped to be then in waiting ; and 

letter to the king, expressing the sense he, came to me next day, and tola me, 

the had 'of Iter past life] and, at her be was sure the king had A bo* letter 

{Kesire, I drew each aJeUer as might irom me,; for he held the candle, to 

fee, fit for hej? to write. Bht she ne?er him while he read H: he knew at fhat 

iad 'strength enough to write it: sV distance that It was' my handV'iThf 

Upon that I resolved to. write a very king